Spacegate GC1
by Amanders
Summary: A way-into-the-future adventure, over 1,000 years after Stargate SG-1 takes place. The tale of if the Goa'uld win, the Androidians take over, and the prophesized Preserver is found to either save them all, or fail trying...
1. Author's Note

Author's Note (as of April 25th):

This is—and has been—a work in progress for me since August 2003...almost two years now. It has been a catharsis for me, giving me an outlet for my creative muse and something to do whenever I am bored. By now, it has grown to over 100 short-ish chapters on my saved file and I am still working on it. It will most likely be split into two or three different postings when I eventually post it all, and I have no idea how long it will eventually be. Keep checking back every once in a while for new updates. This has been a joy writing, and I will continue to post new chapters whenever I get around to it.

Reviews and/or feedback are **_very_ **much appreciated and will _always _be read. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Although Stargate is one of the best TV shows on, well, _TV_, in my opinion, I—alas—do not own it or any part of it whatsoever. This is purely fan fiction, and though I use some of the same plotlines as the show does, I apologize profusely to MGM and promise that it'll make sense later.

And now…onto the story!


	2. The Beginning

Chapter 1 – The Beginning

Doctor Daniel Matthewson sighed as he walked into his classroom. It wasn't that he didn't like teaching Ancient Earth History and Languages at the most prestigious university of Neo-America—he thoroughly enjoyed it—but his high school students had been rowdy all week with the promise that spring break was right around the corner.

While walking to his desk, one of the many free-floating paper airplanes made from handed-back class work glided down and rested itself on his briefcase. Sighing again, Daniel took his glasses off and wearily rubbed his eyes. It was a very late Friday afternoon in May, after all—_the _Friday before the latest spring break on record—so he figured that the kids were entitled to some rowdiness and that he couldn't be too mad at them. After all, he wanted the break, as well.

The bell finally rang and the class officially started. The linguist-doctor, who had PhDs in the study of various Human Languages and Ancient World History, had been teaching his students about how this world was formed the few weeks before. Today, he figured, his class probably wouldn't remember anything he taught them because of the break, and so he thought he'd just talk about the subject the class had been dying to get to since school started: that of how people evolved on this planet and the Dark Ages.

"Since there's spring break coming up," Daniel said over the rumble of his students' quiet talking; "I thought that we would talk briefly about the origins of the people of this planet today, as I know you won't remember anything along the lines of the subjects we were _actually_ studying."

The entire classroom laughed slightly and then fell silent. One young man raised his head from the desk he was trying to nap on.

"Do you mean the legend of how the Goa'uld caused the Dark Ages across the Earth and how the Androidians took over?"

"I mean exactly that." Daniel looked around and saw the look of anticipation and happiness on the faces of his students and continued.

"Even though it is a legend, _I_ believe it actually did happen. As we all know, this is the year 2285 A.D., or After Darkness, which was our planet's time in utter chaos after the alien attacks. There were no schools, no churches, no books, no civilized people whatsoever. The people were living in constant fear…forgetting the works of people who were called _Shakespeare_, _Tolkein_, and _Miguel de Cervantes_…forgetting languages, music, art, math, and science… It was a very trying time that set the human race back a few thousand years, and for that, I believe the human culture has been around longer than we have ever thought possible."

A girl raised her hand and was called upon. "Isn't that the belief made you a laughingstock of the scientific world?"

Daniel looked at her and smiled a bit sheepishly. "Yes, it was. But that didn't hinder what I believe. I still believe those events _did _happen, though the others of the scientific world don't agree with me. Let that be a lesson to you all: _never_ give up or stop believing in what you think is right, no matter what others say about it. Unless it is an answer to a test…"

There was a murmur of laughter.

"So how does the myth go exactly?" another student asked and Daniel began his tale.

"The legend goes like this: a few people of the Earth, more than 4000 years ago, found what became known as a Stargate—a portal to other planets around the galaxy. The Stargate was silver in color, a huge ring with star constellations on an inside ring that spun around the middle. Next to it, usually, was something the humans before us called a DHD—Dial Home Device—which had the exact constellations on it from the Stargate, but only in the form of buttons. Pushing on a sequence of seven of these buttons, the seventh being the planet's point of origin, would cause the Stargate to 'dial-up' another world, so to speak. This would cause a wormhole to be opened. When that occurred, a watery-blue substance, called the 'event horizon,' filled the hollow space inside the ring, forming the wormhole to the other side. Then, all one had to do was step through it."

The class was stunned into silence—a first, the teacher noted with a small smile.

"Well, go on!" one student prompted in awe, and Daniel obeyed him with a nod.

"In what was then called America—where we get the name for our country now—inside a sacred site called Cheyenne Mountain in a place called Colorado, they housed the Stargate. Teams of four people, christened with the letters SG- and then a number, fought the evil aliens, who you know as the Goa'uld, and formed treaties (or tried to at least) with the good aliens; it is written that some of these good alien races were called the Asgard, the Nox, and the Tok'ra. SG-1, the flagship team, was the best of all the teams, and had the brightest and most cunning people at the SGC—or Stargate Command, the base of the Stargate operations.

"While going to these other planets, however, as everyone knows, they encountered a race of evil, parasitical, power-hungry, scavenging aliens with numerous troops and a need for more hosts—the Goa'uld. The many SG-Teams fought these aliens as hard as they could, winning numerous battles and killing many commanders of the Goa'uld Empire—known as System Lords.

"After ten years of secretly fighting, the SG-Teams of Earth had killed every Goa'uld System Lord…or so they thought. While they were celebrating their victory, a dormant System Lord, called Nun, awoke from its undetected hibernation. Then, with its mighty empire—even grander than that of Baal or Apophis—took over the Earth. It released toxins into the air and it had Jaffa—the System Lord's expendable soldiers—patrolling the grounds, killing every human they saw…it was a total time of devastation, a time of human ignorance, and a time of fear.

"And then _they _came."

"Then what happened?" The students were sitting on the edges of their seats, hanging onto every word their teacher said.

"It is said that the Ancients, a most powerful race of aliens, the Stargate-builders, evolved once more into a race called the Guardia and went into hiding…and that another race of aliens, called the Androidians, came to Earth and finally eliminated the Goa'uld threat. These new aliens, however, weren't good. They were as evil as the Goa'uld were, and they just wanted to take over Earth's resources. But then that glorious day happened…the day we celebrate our independence. The Androidians just disappeared, and the human race was able to progress and evolve again, becoming what we are today. We are all descendants of those people who were oppressed by both alien races and lived to tell the tale. It is a wonderful myth, a new way to look at how our people came to live here, and for that, I believe that this myth is indeed true."

Daniel, his eyes closed while he remembered the tale, finally opened them and was taken aback by the looks on his students' faces. They were all mesmerized by his words; some even looked dreamy, as if they were imagining the legend they all knew too well. Daniel couldn't blame them—he had had his share of dreams, as well. All of a sudden, however, the bell that declared the day was over rang and class ended.

"Have a good spring break! I expect to see all of you here two weeks from Monday!"

"Goodbye Dr. Matthewson!" some of the students called out as they rushed from the classroom. Dr. Daniel was soon left with an empty room.

"Well, _that _went well," he remarked softly to himself as he tidied up his desk. "I should look into teaching that for a whole semester."

There was a sudden knock on the door that disturbed his thoughts.

"Dr. Daniel Matthewson, I presume?" a man dressed in a black suit asked from the door. Daniel looked up and was instantly wary of the man. He was wearing sunglasses even in the dim light of the classroom and the slight bulge at his side signified that he carried at least one firearm. He also had two other men behind him who also appeared to be bodyguards by the way they carried themselves and by their size.

"Yes, that's me," the linguist said hesitantly. "How can I help you?"

"We were sent here by the government. We hear that you're the man who is world-renown for his studies and knowledge of all the known languages of man. Our government has recently taken an interest in different languages. Would you come with us?"

The other two men suddenly appeared right next to Daniel on either side of him. "Do I have a choice?" the doctor asked and followed the men outside.


	3. Decisions

Chapter 2 – Decisions

Daniel found himself in a very secure, very black SUV driving down the highway at an increasing speed. He felt tense and curious. Where were these men taking him? Why did they want _him_?

After what seemed like an eternity, the men pulled up to an airport where they put him on a private jet, heading towards Neocaple, Neo-America's capital city. Daniel had never traveled to the nation's capital, and had wanted to, just only under different circumstances.

After an hour flying from the university to Neocaple on the nuclear-powered jet, they landed near an air force base, located in the side of a mountain.

Daniel was led inside.

The two men showed him to an interrogation room seven floors down from ground-level, and shut the door, leaving him alone in an unfamiliar place.

Trying to keep calm, Daniel sat down in a spindly chair that was next to a sturdy steel table and began to look at his surroundings.

The room was not inviting whatsoever. It was completely grey with soft lights everywhere, giving it a glow that made it somewhat eerie. There were also, what Daniel could guess, concealed cameras, watching his every move. Mentally shrugging it off, Daniel opened his briefcase and began to translate an ancient tablet he had just received from a local museum.

The person the linguist had been taken to see didn't have Daniel wait long before he arrived. Walking into the room, the man looked to be in his late fifties with a completely bald head, his warm chocolate-brown skin looking sickly in the poor light. The new man was also on the hefty side with a large, friendly face that was hard with seriousness and worry.

"Dr. Daniel Matthewson!" the man said in a pleasant deep voice as he shook Daniel's hand. "I'm Major General Joseph Hoffman. I'm with our world's government and we need your help."

"Anything for our government," Daniel said with a hesitant voice. "What is the problem?"

The General looked at the other man with a considering stare which then softened a bit after coming to a conclusion. "We have heard of your work as a famed linguist and scientist, and have become interested in it. We hear that you think that there was human life before the Dark Ages and that the people had space flight, alien allies, and really advanced technology. Well, we have been researching this matter, secretly of course, and, well, Dr. Matthewson…you were right."

Daniel just sat there, too stunned to think of anything. All his life, he had this one vague memory of reading a very old book of humans having this sort of technology. He remembered that the copyright date had been 2004…but it wasn't from this time period…it had been a totally different language, and it had also been a lot more technologically advanced than what had been possible at year 2004 After Darkness.

_An advanced 2004, _he had thought to himself as he read it,_ scientists actually could do this in 2004? That's impossible!_ But as he had read it, it all became clear that no one remembered what had happened to the people on this Earth before the Dark Ages and that this actually _was _humanly possible.

"_How_ was I right?" Daniel asked with a mouth that was suddenly dry.

"Everything," was Hoffman's reply. "Our archeologists have uncovered a very rusted, very big machine that looks like it has flight capabilities—it was named the _Prometheus._"

"_The Prometheus_?" Daniel breathed, almost unable to say the name himself. "You _Found_ the _Prometheus_?!"

"Yes, Dr. Matthewson. We did, and we actually got onto it with a code we found in an archeological journal. That journal is very significant, too."

Daniel shook his head, his eyes wide. "And why is that?"

"It appears to be written by someone from the original SG-1…a fellow by the name of Dr. Jackson. It's also older than we had anticipated…over 4000 years old…dated 2004…and it's still in pristine condition. There are hundreds of them."

"You found _proof_ that there was an advanced civilization before the Dark Ages?"

"We do, but we're not taking it public. Not yet. We need to investigate this further, and that's where you come in. We need someone who can decipher ancient texts and who can be trusted. We've gone into your background and you seem quite the model citizen. We've also talked to your family and colleagues and they tell us that you're quite the extraordinary person. The only problem now is that of your choice.

"We'd like you to give up everything in this world and come with us, Dr. Matthewson. You'll be making a huge difference, though you won't get any credit in the 'real' world. You'll be able to see the machines that you have been talking about and you'll be able to see what we found on the _Prometheus_. You also, however, will be fighting against enemies, as well as making allies and the like. It isn't safe, and it isn't exactly certain.

"I'll leave you to your thoughts, now, though I would like an answer soon." General Hoffman got up to leave. Right before he reached the door, however, Daniel stopped him.

"General?" Joseph turned around, and saw that the linguist had a look in his eye that could only be described as fiery determination. "I'm in."

"Are you sure?" Joseph was surprised. The doctor's response took quicker to make than the general thought it would.

"Yes. The only thing I want is to make a difference. I never really belonged here anyway, so I guess I'll try this other place you're talking about."

"Do you drink, smoke, or have a chemical dependency?" the General abruptly asked, totally off subject.

Daniel blinked at him before answering. "Of course not! Teaching regulations forbid it. May I ask why you want to know?"

"Because, Daniel, where we're going there's no alcohol, drugs, tobacco, or any of that stuff. If you would've had an addition, we couldn't have let you in."

"Ah," the linguist said.

"Another thing you should know, Daniel," Hoffman said, "is that once you make this decision, you cannot go back on it. There's no possible way to come back."

"I understand. I'm willing to do this."

Hoffman smiled. "Very well. Please follow me, doctor."

* * *

Hoffman led Daniel to a secret room inside the base. Once there, Daniel was told to change into the clothes he was given: camouflage combat pants, a tight black long-sleeved shirt with a collar, and black combat boots. The shirt had a teardrop-shaped opening in the front, exposing part of his chest.

On the sleeve of the shirt there was also a patch. It was circular with a silver outline around a navy blue circle with white dots. In this circle, there was yet another circle that Daniel thought signified a white planet. In the middle of this planet, there was a Latin symbol **Ħ**. Shrugging it off, Daniel pushed his questions aside, knowing that he'd ask General Hoffman later. He left the dressing room he had been shown to and walked to the room Joseph had said they'd meet.

"This," General Hoffman said a little later as he emerged from another room dressed in a green dress shirt, black tie, dark green jacket and black pants and shoes, "is where the journey will get rough. Those clothes are your military outfit and the clothes you will be wearing for the rest of your time in The System."

"The System?" Daniel asked, not sure what he had gotten himself into.

"I'll explain it to you once you're ready on the other side. But first, you must get through the Spacegate. Follow me."

Daniel followed the General through a corridor and many other rooms that needed a security card to get them through. Wondering what the heck a Spacegate was, he was finally led to a huge room. To one side, there appeared to be a gigantic, silver circle of metal with many markings on it. There was also a ramp leading up to it. Daniel didn't know what it was for, but he had a feeling he was going to find out.

"Oh, wow," Daniel said. "Those symbols, if I'm not mistaken, are Ancient Egyptian, Japanese, Latin, Chinese, and African, Cyrillic, Arabic, and Russian letters."

Hoffman turned towards Daniel. "You knew all that by just glancing at them for a second?"

The doctor looked back at Joseph and blinked. "Yeah, I-I guess so."

The General smiled. "You'll do a_ great_ job." Then he got serious. "Start dialing out to Tierra via the _SS Karma_!"

"Tierra? That's the Spanish name for—"

"Yes, we know. That's why we named it that. It's a refuge from the aliens we're trying to get away from and it's almost exactly like this Earth. I'll explain more on it once we get to our ship. It'll be a rough ride for you."

"Great," Daniel said slightly sarcastically and swallowed hard. He didn't like the sound of that.

Joseph turned and looked gravely at Daniel. "All you need to do is to walk through the Spacegate once it dials to _Karma_. This is the Spacegate."

"It looks exactly like the fabled Stargate!" Daniel exclaimed.

"It's similar, but different. I'll explain it to you later. From this point onward, it will be a hard next two weeks for you, but you'll get better. Are you _sure _you still want to do this?"

"Yes." There was nothing but determination in Daniel's voice.

"All right…follow me…" Joseph and Daniel turned just as the last symbol on the Spacegate was put in. Daniel promised himself he'd pay more attention later on how the Spacegate worked. Then, what happened next totally made his head swim. Right in the center of the metal ring, there came a swirling of an aqua sort of water that seemed to push outward with it spiraling around. Suddenly, as quickly as it started, it stopped; the aqua 'water' was as still as an undisturbed pool. Daniel had never seen anything like it…he had only heard about it…in the legend of the Stargate.

"It _is_ like the Stargate!" the linguist remarked to himself in awe.

The General walked up the ramp towards the blue surface of the Spacegate and just simply walked through. The water of the Spacegate barely rippled as Joseph passed into it. Daniel knew he should follow.

Walking hesitantly up to the Spacegate, he studied the water for a minute; then he stuck his hand into the still blue surface, quickly pulling it out. It felt as if he had stuck his hand into a sort of gel, but it didn't leave any trace of it on his skin when he pulled it out. It was the weirdest thing in the world.

Holding his breath, Daniel plunged his face into it and opened his eyes. What he saw was a dark blackness that appeared to be dotted with galaxies and stars. Marveling at that for a minute, he stepped all the way into the portal and felt himself go numb while traveling very fast.

While traveling through the Spacegate, he could feel a painful weight in the middle of his chest and dizziness overtook him. He barely remembered exiting the Spacegate's 'water' and hitting the ramp hard. After that, everything became dark.

* * *

Daniel opened his eyes and felt a stab of pain sear through his body as his pupils dilated quickly to take in the intense brightness. "He's awake!" a female voice said and the linguist tried looking around, finally finding a familiar face: that of General Hoffman.

Making a move to sit up, Daniel found that his arms and legs currently no longer responded to his commands, though his mouth did work slightly.

"Where 'mI?" he asked in a slurred voice, his lips barely moving. "Why won't my body move? Why do my eyes hurt?"

"You're in a parallel universe," the General said from above him, "one that is exactly the same as our world, though different in one way: there're no civilians, so things around here are not kept that secret. We're on my ship, the _SS Karma_. Your body no longer responds and your eyes hurt because you have not used them yet in this dimension. Now, get rested! That is the only way that your body will get used to this new environment!"

That was the last thing Daniel remembered for a long time.


	4. Revelations

Chapter 3 – Revelations

General Hoffman looked down at the limp body of the linguist with mixed emotions. The unconscious man seemed to know a lot about languages, which was good for what he was going to be doing. He also had an amazing determination and acceptance for leaving everything he knew to be sane in order to come to a new version of reality…especially when he knew that here, the impossible could become possible.

Looking up, the General looked around the room quickly, not really concerned for the lack of consciousness from Daniel. Everyone in The System had all had endured this adjustment, and it usually wasn't as bad as it looked.

Surveying the steel-grey room with the Spacegate standing in the center of the back wall, he looked up, facing away from the Spacegate. There, 20 feet or so above the floor was a transparent Transsteel window looking into the Control Room. From that room, the computer's operator used the special computer to dial to other worlds. A room that branched off from that room was the General's office, so he could know what was happening around him.

Coming back to reality, Joseph said, "All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's get this done quickly. It will take a long time for us to explain everything to him and time is short. Someone get over here! We need to get his shirt up so we can continue the muscle regeneration process. We've already done his head and neck. Now it's for the torso and arms. Quickly! Quickly, please!"

The General's orders were carried out. "All right," Hoffman said as he turned to look at Daniel. "What have we—?"

The General stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the bared chest of the unconscious man. Right where the hole in his shirt had been, imbedded into his chest, was a teardrop-like red jewel, about the size of a large hen egg…and it was glowing slightly.

"The prophecy is true!" Hoffman breathed, as he examined the jewel Daniel possessed. "Everyone! Doctor Daniel Matthewson is a _red jewel_!"

"_What?"_ the rest of the crew exclaimed.

"A red jewel? But that is only of legend!" the woman who had spoken earlier, said.

"Well, the legend is not one anymore. We have found the Preserver. He's the man who will save us from the Androidians! Let us continue the regeneration process!"

* * *

Daniel awoke to a dim room with a searing migraine. Looking around himself, he found that he was on a bed that was built into the wall of his room so that he was literally inside the wall with the side of the room acting as a partial ceiling. Above him, on the partial ceiling, was a light fixture that was off, and shelves had been built into the walls on either end of his bed. All the shelves were filled with different things that Daniel guessed were now his.

Not being able to see anything else, Daniel sat up and was surprised he could move without pain, let alone move at all. Patting himself down, he was glad to see that he was all there, but there was something not right. When he had turned to look at the bare metal wall across from his bed with a mirror on it, he saw there a dim red glow coming from his chest under the blanket that was over him. Looking slowly down, Daniel nearly fainted. The red jewel embedded in his chest gave him a start, and he knew he needed to get answers.

"You want to know what happened to you," a voice said from the darkness of his room. Daniel looked around and was startled to see Hoffman standing there, his olive green jewel—which the linguist hadn't noticed earlier—glowing slightly, as well. "I will tell you most of it now, but you still need your rest.

"We believe you are our Preserver, the man who will save us from the Androidians…yes, the Androidians are still around. The Guardia found a way to banish them to this alternate reality in order for the people of Old Earth to evolve once more. The problem is that they really want to go back to Earth and take those resources once again…and so are slowly conquering things over on this side while trying to get the seven Stargates—yes, they're still around—to get to the other dimension.

"When the Guardia banished the Androidians here, they foretold the future. The prophecy was that a man with a red jewel would join The System and would put an end to all our enemies. We believe that that man is_ you_.

"You are now 'reborn' into The System. The System is somewhat like a 'computer program' in which you were 'uploaded.' Everything that you created in the real world has been destroyed; everyone you knew has forgotten you. Your mother, your father, your friends and relatives…everyone will have no knowledge of you. You're part of our family now, and you'll be with us for the rest of your life.

"You are at the SGB, or Spacegate Base. We are in a parallel universe with Earth…it's not exactly the same as Earth—as there are no known humans—but it's not too different. We have no alternate selves here.

"We've found out long ago that we are above a planet we named Tierra. It is where we can dock whenever the need arises, and is our home away from the ship. We go there four times a year, or so, to stock up on supplies and talk to our superiors. We're scheduled to go there two weeks after the Christmas Ball back on Old Earth, though you'll hear more of that later. And yes, getting used to the fact that you're now by Tierra instead of Earth takes a while, but I'm sure you know that Tierra is Spanish for Earth. It won't be so bad, right?"

Daniel shook his head numbly, and Hoffman continued. "The Spacegates and Stargates have been kept a secret from Earth's people because we feel that it would cause people to go crazy. The Stargates here in this universe do not work as they did on Old Earth. There are few Stargates in this reality and each SG-Team has one Stargate and one Spacegate apiece. The only reason to have the Stargates is that they allow people to come into The System, but they don't have to stay here…they don't receive a jewel like we did. The Stargates are not grey anymore, like you have learned; the metal, over the years, oxidized on them for some reason, turning the Naquadah, the metal, into actual gold."

The General stopped for a minute, and then smiled slightly. "It's a bit complicated, I know, but it'll make sense to you later, son.

"With us at this base, we have quite a few teams that carry out presidential orders. There are seven teams, all with four or five people on them. You've been assigned to GC-1—short for Team One of the Gate Crews. I will have you meet your teammates later.

"We are a special branch of the military, similar to the Army because we mostly have to fight here. Being so, I think it won't be much to expect you to call me either _sir _or _General_ from now on. Your crewmembers on GC-1 won't require that for them, however."

Hoffman sighed. "All right. You're wondering about the jewel in your chest, I know. The jewel is, we're not sure why, a way to measure how good our health is, and it maintains our health for us—somewhat like a immune system to all the foreign viruses and germs out here. The duller it is, the healthier we are. It also reacts to emotions such as pain, fear, anger and love. It shines brightly when in love, and dully and menacingly when angered or in pain. We're not sure why it does, nor why we have them. We've tried to take them out, but, well, it didn't exactly work out that well… The man died, but I guess that was a better alternative than dying a slow death in the real world…

"Oh! I forgot. Now that we are in The System, we cannot stay in the real world more than a month, or thirty days—whichever comes first. After that, the program running us there starts to crash and we start to die there. If we get back, however, even if we're on the verge of dying, we'll heal."

"How is that possible?" Daniel wondered. He was mesmerized by what the General had been talking about.

"Our minds and bodies are connected to The System. After being reborn into it, the mind cannot live without it. It's like the energy source to a computer. The computer cannot work unless it has a power source. Now rest! We need you well and functioning to go on missions, as GC-1 _is_ a field team. I'll leave you to your thoughts. Good night."

The General got up and left the room, closing the door behind him. Daniel flopped back on his bed and sighed. He didn't need sleep, but he needed a lot of time to process all the news he had just received.


	5. Many Meetings

Chapter 4 – Many Meetings

"This, Daniel, is the Main Bridge," Hoffman said a while later as he took the linguist around, giving him the 'official' tour of the ship.

"What's her name?" Daniel asked.

"Whose?"

"Hers! The ship's!"

"Oh! I'm sorry! I can't believe I forgot to tell you that! We named her, jokingly, the _SS Karma_, because you are 'reborn' into this new dimension…Ironic, huh?

"Anyway, we are on our way to the Mess Hall. I take it that you haven't had much in the ways of eating since your arrival four days ago. So—"

"_Four days ago? _I was out for _four days_?"

"Well, yes. The muscle regeneration process here in The System takes, on average, ten days or so to accomplish. We were really astounded that you recovered so quickly—we think that it is even more proof that you really are our Preserver."

They walked a ways in silence. Daniel could feel his stomach churn and growl for the first time he had been awake and was surprised to find that he hadn't eaten anything for the longest time.

"We're going to the Mess Hall," Joseph said again, "to get you something to eat and also to meet the rest of the crew. There are a few others—six more, to be exact. They're all eager to get a chance to meet you. Come! Follow me!"

They entered though a giant doorway and walked into, what Daniel couldn't believe, a gigantic room with appliances everywhere. There were huge things that resembled stoves and various other cooking utensils all over the place. There were also small mechanical things that moved around, cooking things and tending what looked to be a huge reactor of some sort.

Daniel peeled his eyes from the marvels around him and focused on the metal table in the very center of all this commotion. There, sat five people, unlike Joseph had said. They all stared at him and stood up as they neared. Despite their stares, Daniel felt like he was welcome among them, and was glad that he had left Earth to come here.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Doctor Daniel Michael Matthewson, our ship's new linguist and scientist!" Everyone came forward to meet this new crewmember.

The first one to approach was a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair. His dark brown eyes and bushy dark brows stood out in his pale skin and he had an air about him that made Daniel think he had been in the army for all his life. He also looked to be very friendly, but Daniel knew he didn't want to be on the other side if they ever were in a fight.

Holding out his hand, the man said, "I'm Colonel John Clayton O'Brien. Welcome aboard. The General's been talking a lot about you these past few days." The man talked with a slight southern twang in his speech. It made him sound slightly ignorant, but Daniel could sense that he was really quite smart.

"Thanks. I hope nothing embarrassing surfaced."

John smiled. "Not yet. Is there something you want to tell us?"

Smiling back, Daniel shook his head in the negative and turned around to find himself in front of someone who wasn't entirely human.

The man, if he was a man, was four or so inches taller than Daniel with shoulder-length dark brown hair. He had brown skin with a sort of sickly orange tint to it and the biggest brown eyes the linguist had ever saw. But that wasn't what was bothering Daniel. In the middle of this man's forehead, there was a diamond design that was slightly raised from the skin—it was gold and didn't look like it was normal. But there was another thing—Daniel could only see parts of something metal gripping the top of the man's head and the sides of his cheeks. It definitely didn't look to be good.

"Ahoy matey! Me name's Dagón! I come from being marooned on me bit o' planet by those scurvy-dogged scallywags! We'll converse on this matter later, for avast ye! Ye've others to meet."

Bewildered, Daniel clasped the man's forearm, as the man had done to him, and was soon meeting the women of the ship.

"Hi. I'm Major Alexandra Caitlin Croft, but everyone here calls me Alex," a woman with shoulder-length orange-blonde hair said with a smile. She had pale skin, like almost everyone had on the ship, and brilliant dark green eyes. She was also short and a bit round, though she was quite pretty. She also had a likeable personality, Daniel could tell, though he could sense that she could be serious whenever the need arose. "Don't worry if you don't understand Dagón," she continued, keeping her voice somewhat hushed. "We're all still trying to figure out what he's saying, but he's getting better at speaking _normal_ English."

"That's good," Daniel said in a stage whisper as he smiled. "Maybe I can help with the translations. I'm good at languages, but I think pirate jargon is a bit over my limits."

"You'll get used to it in no time. I had quite a shock my first day, too! I was uploaded to The System right after Colonel O'Brien recruited Dagón. It took some getting used to, though it will be second nature to you soon."

"Thanks," Daniel said and turned to a more formal-looking woman.

She was slightly shorter than Alex and skinnier, too, with longer black hair and brown, slightly pointed eyes, giving Daniel the idea that she was an Asian woman. She had a white lab coat on, as well, which contrasted heavily with the crew's fatigues and her darker skin. She seemed very nice and caring and probably loved what she did. She seemed to be the doctor, and greeted him with a smile.

"Dr. Matthewson, my name is Major Doctor Katherine Bethany Fields; however, you can call me Kate. I'm the medical doctor on this ship. Once you're done here, I'd like to run a full scan of you to see how your body is handling what it's been through. It makes things easier in adapting to this new environment."

"Of course," Daniel said.

"Great!" she said with another smile, and Daniel watched as another crewmember entered the Mess Hall.

"Whoa! It's Daniel! That's so totally rad, man! Didn't expect to see you here this soon! Oh! By the way, the name's Rick; Captain Rick Jonah Ellerton, but everyone just calls me Dude."

Looking the man up and down, Daniel liked the man instantly. Clearly a surfer from the west coast of the continent, Dude had longish dark blonde hair in the front, almost like Daniel's, that had bleached tips, while the back was just his regular dark blonde hair color and longer than the front. Dude had mysterious hazel eyes and a strong tan on his lighter skin.

_He must've been even tanner before,_ Daniel thought as he smiled at the newcomer, _but being on a ship like this for a long time eventually fades it away_. Seeming slightly younger, the shorter and skinnier man regarded the linguist as a long-lost brother and made him feel welcome.

"Dude it is," Daniel said as he shook Rick's hand. "You like surfing?"

"Love it, man. But since coming to The System, there's hardly any water to do that. I'm, like, totally bummed right now, dude."

"Tell me about it," Daniel said with a smile and turned to General Hoffman. "Is that everyone? That was only five…"

"Sorry I'm late," a sneering voice called from the doorway. A man was standing there with an expression that made Daniel think the man didn't want to be there just to meet the new crewmember. "Couldn't get the elevator to hurry up. So. This is our new crewmember, huh? David, is it?"

"Daniel," the linguist corrected. "My name's Daniel."

"Of course it is," the man said sarcastically and started heading towards the new crewmember. He moved as if he owned the place, and that it was a gift from him that he let them on his ship.

Daniel studied this new man. He was a bit shorter than Daniel with jet-black hair and grey-blue eyes. He had a scrawny appearance and looked like the odd one out of the whole crew. He wore a grey, long-sleeved shirt with black pants and boots. He seemed like he didn't want to be here, but had to be.

"My name's Lieutenant Damian Woods. Welcome aboard." Damian didn't make a move to shake hands with Daniel, so the linguist didn't hold out his hand. Something about this man made him feel uneasy.

"All right," Hoffman said after a minute. "Let us all resume our regular routine. John, Daniel will shadow you for a while so he gets used to the _Karma_. He'll be able to help you with anything you need, though I want him to report to me at 19:00 hours for another debriefing and a schedule of tasks he needs to perform while here."

"Yes, sir," the Colonel said and they all began to eat the meal that had been prepared and served by a robotic serving drone.


	6. Vital Information

Chapter 5 – Vital Information

Daniel was surprised at how familiar he became with the _SS Karma_ in the few minutes he had had the tour. It felt like he had been in the Karma before. It was like he had lived on the ship all his life, but left for a few years, only to return again. It had a very familiar feel to it, and Daniel felt like he had finally come home.

Walking down the halls, he made it to the Main Bridge where he found General Hoffman talking to Alex.

"Ah! Daniel! There you are! And right on time, I might add. I'm surprised you didn't get lost!" Hoffman said when he saw the linguist.

"To tell you the truth, sir," the other man said while pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "it feels to me like I've been here before and only needed reminding of where the rooms are. The only place that John didn't take me to was the bedroom wing."

"Well, then! We shall show you where it is later after we talk. Come; follow me to a more private room." The General led Daniel to his office off the Main Bridge. Walking around his desk, Joseph bade Daniel sit down and then sat down himself, looking intently at the other man.

"Do you feel at home here?"

"At home, sir? Aside from Damian, this is the closest I've come to actually have a real family! I've been an orphan since I was 12, so I've forgotten what it felt like. That's partially why I went into teaching…I got to be around kids all day. Not that that was always a good thing…"

Joseph chuckled. "I'm glad." He then looked at Daniel, and sighed.

"About Damian…well, he was reincarnated on accident. He somehow got into the 'Gate Room while it was connected and, well, he ended up here. He's been complaining and whining about it for the last three months, despite how good he is treated here. We were thinking of banishing him once he became really annoying, but that time hasn't gotten here just yet. We're waiting for it with eagerness, though, because if we just threw him out, we'd feel somewhat bad; but if we kicked him out because we couldn't stand him, well, we wouldn't feel a thing." Joseph ended with a sly grin on his face.

Daniel smiled back. "Yeah, he makes me feel uneasy."

"But not only he makes you unsettled…I noticed that Dagón made you look twice, so I'll tell you a little more about him and the rest of the crew, just so you get used to them.

"Dagón is an alien from a race called the Machiá. They are a race of people enslaved by the Androidians, our enemy here—I believe you've heard of them before?"

"Yes, I have…But, sir, could they actually be real?"

"As real as you or me," Joseph said with a grim face. "I can only wish that they weren't real… Anyway, the Machiá are a race that the Androidians enslaved—the Machiá, when they come of age, are 'honored' by their Androidian 'god' with a symbiote…a branch of the Androidian race that are always in the larvae stage. This is beginning to sound really familiar, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir…the Goa'uld behaved exactly that way in the legends…"

"Well, as a secret between you and me, I'll tell you why. The Androidians are actually a branch of the Goa'uld…they rebelled against the System Lords and began their own empire…and since they didn't have the quarrelling of the different leaders, they progressed a lot quicker than the Goa'uld did—as they were fighting the humans and every other good alien out there, well, of course not the Knox. But because of that, the Androidians became more powerful in a shorter amount of time as the Goa'uld and so the Androidians eventually overthrew the others, killing them and taking over."

"And this is about Dagón, because…?"

"Oh! Sorry. Well! Usually the larvae are put into the chest of the Machiá victim to live there until the Machiá dies, though they can enter the body through the mouth, as well in other ceremonies. And as you know, the Goa'uld larvae enter through a Jaffa's pouch in their stomach…making the two of them different.

"Once they have the Androidian larva in them, they are branded with a symbol and are attached with a Klart—a sort of spider-looking piece of Androidian technology built onto their heads to stimulate the host. They're round at the back of the head and have four legs gripping the skull, as you have seen on Dagón. But some of these Klarts malfunction and the symbiote sometimes rebels against the Androidians and helps the fight because they begin to like their host and begin looking at the Androidians as they do. That's what Dagón's did, and that's why he's not under Androidian control.

"You see, Dagón was a person of power under the rule of Hades, an Androidian god—you'll learn more later. Anyway, he was Hades' most trusted General, called the Chief Vizier, even though he was a pirate and a cosmic castaway, as they're called. Dagón was in charge of the best ship in Hades' fleet at the time and he stole many things, taking women for Hades and killing people. But, after years of this, Dagón's Klart malfunctioned and he began to question his orders seeing the truth for the first time. That's why his ship marooned him on a small deserted planet for death. He had a Spacegate, but he didn't know how to use it because Hades thought that a person under his power should know the least amount of information possible, even for someone who was at Dagón's ranking.

"So, after Colonel O'Brien found Dagón and showed kindness to him, the alien wanted to come back with John and fight with us against the Androidians. While heading back to the 'Gate, they stumbled upon more Androidians dumping off people they didn't like and Dagón helped John get through the Spacegate and out of harm's way unhurt while sustaining injuries himself. After how Dagón had saved the Colonel, he brought him back with him, and that's how he joined GC-1."

"Wow," Daniel said. "That's pretty cool."

"Yeah. Now, there's some more information you need on the rest of the crew. First, I'll tell you all their names, then their pet peeves and what to look out for. In the chain of command, we go: me, Major General Joseph Donald Hoffman, Colonel Jonathon Clayton O'Brien, Major Alexandra Caitlin Croft, Major-Doctor Katherine Bethany Fields, Captain Nicholas Jonah Ellerton, Lieutenant Damian Graham Woods, and then our resident alien Dagón—no middle or last name.

"John absolutely _loathes_ his full first name, so call him John…and do not, I repeat, _do not_ call him Johnny or Jonathon. That makes him go crazy. Like you, whom I know hates to be called Dan or Danny, call him by his entire name, and you'll be fine.

"Don't mention surfing again to Captain Nicholas Ellerton. He gets depressed when he thinks about it because he knows he can't do it anymore. We try to keep him busy so as to not let him think about it, but mentioning it to him has the same effect. He's fine with being called Rick and Dude, but he hates to be called Nicholas—it's 'un-dude-like,' if you know what I mean…

"Alexandra is pretty stubborn…you tell her that she can't do something and she'll set out to prove you wrong. She hasn't seen her father in over three years, and sometimes has a temper while working with guys. Besides that, though, there's really nothing else that sets her off too badly… She's really sweet, though, once you get to know her and she gets to know you."

"That's okay," Daniel said with a slight smile. "I'm pretty stubborn myself. I can see that we'll work fine together…I hope."

"That's good. Doctor Fields can be called Kate…she doesn't much like her full first name, either. A word of advice: _never_ be late for an appointment, if you have one. She lectures, though she's gotten better at not doing it, and if you're on her bad side, she'll find some reason to stick needles in you. She really is very kind, however, and I can see she has taken a liking to you already.

"Dagón really has nothing that sets him off, unless you mention those scurvy-dogged scallywags—also known as the Androidians who marooned him on an asteroid and left on the ship Hades had given him, _The Bronze Pearl_. Even since his marooning, however, he's still feared, so that's usually a good thing when we go to other planets…no one wants to mess with us.

"And lastly, well, anything you do sets Damian off. Try to avoid him; though don't look like you're trying to avoid him. That makes him mad, as well. We really can't wait to get rid of him… Make sense?"

"Um, kinda. Thanks for that. I'll try to keep that advice in mind when I talk to any of them." Daniel's head was spinning from all of the information he had gotten in a very short amount of time.

"There's more that you need to know, Daniel," Joseph said as the linguist made a move to get up.

"There is?"

"Yes. Everyone here, once you are 'reincarnated,' gains special powers. We're still not sure on why this happens, either, but it does, and it's something that you need to be aware of."

Joseph took a breath in. "John can take away life as he chooses and can make things disappear at his will, though it drains him of energy severely. He can also absorb many things, such as a plasma pulse or a plasma blast. That makes him very powerful, and that is how he rose to the rank of Colonel under me, that, and his wonderful strategic mind. You need not worry if you are on his side, but if you aren't…well, I take pity on you. The jewel he has embedded in his chest is a diamond-shaped, well, diamond.

"Dagón, as a pirate, can command water and other elements to bend to his will. He once waved a hand and an entire enemy ship fell apart and separated into the different elements that created it. It was pretty astounding, though you don't want to know how the aliens looked as they, too, began to separate… His jewel isn't really a jewel…it's a bronze pearl, hence his old ship's name.

"Dude is a mechanical wizard and that is why he stays on the ship most of the time. He can hack into anything and uses The Code to find out what happens in the other world."

"The Code?" Daniel interrupted, confused.

"I'll have him explain it to you later. His love of the surf and surfing must have gotten through the Spacegate really strongly since his jewel is an aquamarine one with an oblong-shape, somewhat like a surfboard."

Joseph smiled at the confused look on Daniel's face. "Should I be taking notes?" the linguist asked.

"No…listening and just being with everyone will be enough, I think," the General said and continued his barrage of information.

"Doctor Katherine's only true ability is the healing of people. She majored in becoming a doctor and finished all of the classes available to her for the care of humans. She and Alex are cousins, and so Kate knows how to use any type of alien doctor's tool. Kate's a really good person to have here, especially when most of the things we do are dangerous and life threatening. She has a topaz cross, sort of like the Red Cross back on Old Earth, though it's not red."

"I kinda figured that," Daniel said with a smile. "Neither Kate nor Alex look similar in any way…so—"

"—how are they cousins?" The General nodded. "That's generally what everyone wants to know. Alex's uncle, her mother's brother, married a woman from Korea and they had Kate. Just a little fun fact…"

Daniel nodded with a smile. "Cool. What else do I need to know?"

"Alex's abilities help us a lot, as well. She is a wiz at fixing and figuring out alien technology, let alone our own, and she's the best at calculations—no wonder she graduated at the top of her class. She's helped us hotwire alien ships and has fixed our own ship before; she's gotten us out of a jam many times. She majored in Astrophysics and mechanics in college. Alex also can sense injuries and can heal them temporarily, though it drains her of energy. The healing comes from Kate's side of the family… Alex has a sapphire heart jewel and she says that it corresponds to what the Sage told her the first time she saw her, though she's not telling exactly what it means."

"The Sage?"

"You'll hear more about her later," Hoffman said. "When you're ready, you'll find out."

"All right," Daniel said. "Anything else?"

"Yes. For Damian, well, we're really not sure why he didn't get any abilities. He dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and didn't study really anything, so maybe that's why. Perhaps his skill in manipulating words is one, but we're not sure. It's best not to listen to him too closely, because if you do, well, then you can get tangled up in what he's saying and never know whether you're manipulating him or he's manipulating you. His jewel is an Obsidian triangle—we think it matches his heart."

"Do you know what my powers are?" Daniel asked. "I don't really feel anything yet."

"The abilities you have appear slowly at first. You might not get yours for another few days or so, but once one appears, the others come very quickly. But, I must confess, one of my powers is that I can tell what some of your powers will be. Let me see…"

Joseph closed his eyes and sat there for a minute, a hand touching Daniel's.

"Ah," he said, while opening his eyes. "Since you majored mostly in foreign languages, you will be able to read and decipher any languages, alien or human, really fast and can then speak the language after you've read it. You will eventually be able to stop plasma weapons, like John, and will ultimately get foresight. I cannot tell you much more, though you will get more than I have said. You, Daniel, will be the greatest of us all."

"Foresight?" Daniel asked. "I'll be able to see the future?"

With a bland expression, Joseph nodded. "You won't be able to see it all, though you'll see some. It will show what will happen up to a certain point, up to where you will need to make a choice, and then the fate you see will alter according to what you picked. Trust me, I've no idea what it means, but we'll be here for you to help you through the times that you discover yet another gift. You won't be alone…"


	7. First Time Off Ship

Chapter 6 – First Time Off Ship

Daniel had been shown around the dormitory hall after his meeting with the General, and was then given his room. It was pleasant and the right size for him. The walls were a dullish grey color, the color of metal, though they weren't dismal. He had a comfortable-looking bed and a desk with everything he would need. He also had his own bathroom and wardrobe. It felt more like home than home had.

Laying back in his bed after changing into the nightclothes that were laid out for him, he allowed his mind to settle into the rhythmic rumble of the running engine of _Karma_, and fell asleep, feeling that he had finally found his place in life…even if it wasn't in the same dimension.

He awoke from a deep sleep feeling restful the next morning. Dressing, he could swear that he could sense that someone was lurking outside his room. Somehow, by doing something he didn't know he could do, Daniel closed his eyes and focused, willing himself to look through the wall, and sure enough, in his mind, Daniel could see that Damian was there, trying to look into Daniel's room.

Focusing on the man, Daniel thought '_Go away_,' and Damian, with a slightly dazed, puzzled expression, immediately walked down the hall, turning the corner. Smiling, Daniel hurried to Joseph's quarters just off the Main Bridge.

"You're sure that happened?" Hoffman asked after Daniel told him what had just occurred.

"Yes!"

"Wow. See? I told you you'd have more! Could you show me?" Joseph seemed almost giddy.

Daniel looked around and saw Alex walking towards them to go to her science lab.

"Here, Alex will wink and clap her hands…right about…" Daniel made sure she was looking at them and was close enough when he thought the commands. "Now." Alexandra looked over and winked at them while clapping her hands once as she opened and entered another door leading into the hallway she wanted.

Joseph was grinning. "Maybe you can use that for an advantage with the ladies…"

Daniel looked over with a hard look on his face mixed with disbelief. "I don't think so."

"Hey, to each his own…"

Suddenly, the General's phone rang. Picking it up and after listening for a while, Joseph became pale and his olive-green jewel began to glow slightly.

"I understand, sir," he said, while closing his eyes and rubbing his temples. "Yes, sir. We'll go at once." He hung up.

Looking up at Daniel with determined eyes, the General said, "Well, it's going to be your first time off-ship. We're ordered to go checkout a planet, named P36-X79 by our computer. We call it "The Wasteland" because, well, that's what it is. We have word from our intelligence that a ship has crash-landed there and is thought to be Androidian."

"Are they sure?" Daniel asked, his face turning grim.

"No, but we'd better get you ready. It'll be your first time traveling in this dimension. It'll feel kind of weird and your mind will feel like it's ripped from the rest of you. You'll need to get used to it, though—it isn't as bad as when you first came here."

Turning back to his desk, Hoffman took out what looked to be something blackish-grey that stuck in the ear and followed the jawbone to the mouth, where it seemed to have a microphone. He handed it to Daniel.

"This is your standard issue comm. It connects to any of the crewmembers that are using them and you can talk to everyone at once, or just one at a time—you cannot have just a few at the same time, though."

Pushing the button on the side of his, Hoffman said, "Everyone, report to the Spacegate room. We're going on a mission to The Wasteland."

Letting go of the button, he made a gesture for Daniel to follow him and they left to go to the Boarding Room, Daniel placing the comm in his ear.

"What're our orders, sir?" John asked while walking into the room, Dagón right behind him. Dude, Alex, and Damian came a bit later.

"You're going off-world. John, you, Dude, Daniel and Alex will go. Damien, Dagón and I will stay here. All you need to do is check out a ship that crash-landed there. The President wants to know if it can be salvaged and if it's Androidian. That'll be your mission. I want you, John, to stay with Daniel and help him through his first mission off-ship."

John smiled. "Of course, sir. I know what it felt like on my first mission."

Joseph turned and nodded to Dagón, who, on being ordered, had gone to the dialing room. "Go ahead, Dagón!" he said and the alien nodded.

"Starting the dialing sequence to The Wasteland," Dagón confirmed, and Daniel paid attention to what was happening.

The inside of the Spacegate's ring, the part with the letters on began to spin clockwise. The giant triangle at the top stopped it at the Latin **Ħ **letter that was on their patch—Daniel correctly assumed that that was the symbol for Tierra, the point of origin for where they were in the galaxy.

Then, when it had stopped at the letter, a blue beam of light 'scanned' the letter, making it turn red from the dark green it used to be. From here, the information went into the computer where Dagón was.

"Alpha-One encoded, matey!" Dagón announced through the dialing room into the 'Gate Room through a microphone.

After scanning the symbol, the Spacegate's inner circle turned counter-clock-wise, and went to another letter, scanning that, as well.

"Alpha-Two encoded!"

The process continued until seven letters were scanned.

"Alpha-Seven encoded! Spacegate engaged! Opening the iris."

Over the open space through the Spacegate was a see-though Transsteel covering, though it wasn't the clearest Transparent Steel ever made—Daniel guessed that that was the iris. It wound around itself and looked like it could be opened easily, though if an attack came, it would hold.

All of a sudden, the Transsteel unwound at the middle and disappeared inside the Spacegate's frame. Then, a split second after that, the swirling 'waters' came again and spun outward, making the link to another Spacegate.

"Whoa," Daniel muttered.

"Yeah," John said. "And it's quite a ride, too."

Looking around, John then said, "All right, everyone! Let's do this! The sooner we get there, the sooner we get back.

"Dagón? Just the normal combat pack—nothing special, except put comms in there. Yeah…and maybe night-vision goggles. Did you get all that?"

"Aye, John. I got it. And ye'll have them once ye get there."

"Good," John said and signaled for his team to go through the Spacegate.

After Alexandra and Dude had gone through, John walked up the ramp with Daniel. "We'll show you how it works when we get back. Come on, let's go."

Bracing for impact, Daniel stepped into the water portal and was instantly met with a faster-than-light ride through various star galaxies before stepping out of another Spacegate far, far away from Tierra.

Looking around as he walked down the ramp on the new planet, Daniel found that the General was right. He was sick to his stomach and his mind was reeling. He hadn't realized that he had fallen to the ground until John, Dude and Alex were above him, asking him if he was okay.

"I think so," Daniel said. "Did you all do this your first time?"

Everyone nodded.

"The first ride is always the hardest on the body. After that, it's used to it, so the ride back isn't this bad."

"That's good," the linguist replied and stood up from where he had been lying.

Looking around, the planet lived up to its name. There was literally nothing there for as long as the eye could see. The land was, well…a barren wasteland. No trees, no buildings, nothing…except dirt.

"Whoa," Daniel said again.

"Yeah. The planet seems to have that effect on people. There're no _trees._ Are you okay?" Cocking his gun, John looked over at Daniel. After the shaken man nodded, John then said, "All right. The crashed ship is this way."

As they walked, Daniel began checking out the gear he now had. He hadn't noticed it before when they had stepped onto the planet—and didn't even pay it any attention when he had been on the ground. Rummaging through his now-rigged overcoat, he found that he had guns—lots of guns, though they weren't of the regular kind.

Taking one out, he looked at it. It was the normal blackish grey of the regular automatic ammunition guns, though there was one difference. On the sides, there was an oblong, oval, and glowing protrusion that was changing from an acid blue to a darker blue and white as he watched it.

"What the—?"

"That's a plasma gun," Alex said from beside him.

Daniel looked up, surprised because he hadn't noticed her there before.

"What? How does it work?"

"Well, John says I explain things too complexly, so I'll try to keep it simple. The gun, on the inside, takes small pieces of the inside of the battery and heats it up so intensely and quickly that the matter changes phase from a liquid, to a gas, and then to a plasma in a small fraction of a second. This is part of the Guardia technology that we've found. We call them Plasguns. They can pack quite a wallop."

"And what are these?" Daniel asked, holding out two smaller guns that were shaped like coiled-up cobras.

"Press that button," Alexandra said, after Daniel put one away.

Daniel did as he was told, pressing a small camouflaged button on the cobra's belly. The head of the snake jolted forward, as if to strike, while its hood flared. The eyes started glowing a yellowish gold. The tongue of the snake also stuck out as the jaw opened.

"Whoa! What's this called?"

"That is called a Sartilientanel, but we just call it a Sartgun—it's John's christened name for them because he couldn't pronounce Sartilientanel. We've discovered that they're an advanced form of Zat'nikatels from the time before the Dark Ages. These new weapons were Dagón's discovery when we had been on an Androidian ship. The Machiá use them when they are in battle. When we were on the ship, we found an entire box of them! While we escaped, we took a few of them with us, so we have quite the arsenal once we scanned them into the computer."

Daniel looked at her in confusion. All this stuff about the weapons and how they 'scanned' them into the computer was really scrambling his brain. Alex realized she was explaining things too greatly and needed to backup quite a few steps to be on the same page as Daniel.

"Okay. Did the General give you the metaphor about how The System is a computer program?"

Daniel smiled. "Actually, he used it in simile form, but yes, he did."

"All right. Well, in essence, The System really is a great big network, like the ones computers in companies or schools use to save and access vast amounts of information simultaneously. Well, when we are 'uploaded' into The System, we are a part of a special network and can travel throughout it as we please, using the Spacegates somewhat like USB ports so we can get data—basically, that's us and everything else we upload—to and from places.

"Because of that fact, we are able to 'scan' objects in and replicate them, giving us the advantage over many of the obstacles that we find. That's why General Hoffman and Dude usually stay behind—the General gives the orders to send the stuff, and Dude—not excluding Dagón—is probably the only one who can actually send them. Well, besides me, of course. In due time, you'll be able to get the training, if you want it, to be able to use The System's Code, too."

All of a sudden, Daniel saw a flash in his mind of a sort of computer screen with a black background. In front of that background, there were the symbols he had seen on the Spacegate and many more of other different languages—they were red and moving down, as if trickling over a sort of slow waterfall. There were occasional gaps in the information, but from what Daniel could see, there wasn't really any coherence in the text.

"Wait a sec. Is The Code a bunch of red letters in different languages falling downwards on a computer screen?"

Alex looked taken aback. "Why, yes, it is. The General told me that he wasn't going to show you that yet…"

"He didn't," Daniel admitted. "I saw it in my mind. My powers are beginning to show themselves."

"That's great!"

Daniel looked over at her. "Not really. I really don't know what they're supposed to be. The General told me about some of the ones that I'll get, but I just don't know about the whole thing. I'm glad I made the decision to get reincarnated in this new dimension, but this whole power thing…well…it feels like a terrible burden—like I shouldn't be here, or that it shouldn't be happening to me.

"And, what's more is that with the added anticipation of Hoffman doesn't help. I mean…I came here because I wanted to, and I thought that I'd be treated as an equal. But I find that instead of being like everyone else, I'm supposed to be this Preserver to all of you. I have no idea of what to do with that! I mean, I have no new knowledge, no knew abilities that tell me what I can do to save the humans of every dimension from the Androidians, and yet Hoffman expects me to suddenly just wake up with a fool-proof plan!"

"I know how you feel, Daniel," she said in response to his ranting. "I was thought to be the Preserver when I came to this ship, though it was a false alarm. Hoffman will eventually take you to see the Sage, though—she is the wisest and oldest person in the entire Universe. She has psychic abilities and is somewhat like a prophet. She can help you, but you'll be brought to her when Hoffman thinks you're ready."

"What did the Sage tell you?" Daniel asked, genuinely curious about what this old woman knew.

Alex looked uncomfortable. "She told me that I'd meet The Preserver," she said while looking straight ahead. Daniel could sense a slight disturbance in the back of his mind, as if she was lying to him. He let it slide. "She had said that I'd meet him sometime in the next few years…and I think her prophecy was right."

Daniel sighed and was just about to ask her if she believed he was the Preserver when John announced, "Kids, we're here."

The linguist looked up and was surprised at what he saw. The man had been thinking that it would look like the rockets that had been on Earth when he had actually been _on_ Earth. But, instead, what was before them wasn't like anything that Daniel had ever seen, besides the ones in science-fiction movies.

What was left of the ship was huge. Towering well over fifty feet, it was the color of copper, except the black places where it had been burned on impact. All around it there weren't any portals, though Daniel found out later that the walls themselves could actually turn translucent, so portals to the outside were useless.

The ship looked like it had been made out of paper and a reckless child had just slammed it to the floor. One entire side of the ship was caving in to form a gaping hole to the inside. The only thing that was entirely preserved on the outside was the tail end, which was sticking up into the air, unscathed by the impact.

On the side the crew could see, Daniel could discern some symbols, though they were alien to him. Walking up to them, John gave him the go-ahead.

"Daniel, we need that language deciphered. Keep your comm on just in case we need your help with something. We think this ship is one of the Sinnart, though we're not entirely sure. There still might be Sinnartians stuck on board, so we're going to go in and look. Dude, Alex, let's go."

"Yes, sir!"

Left alone with his comm on, Daniel began to look over the text he found on the side of the ship. There was an abundance of it, so he didn't know if these Sinnartians liked to give their ships really long names, or if it was just a bunch of letters to serial-code it.

Suddenly, his head felt weird, as if a giant computer had been connected directly to his brain. Pressing his hands against his head, Daniel closed his eyes and tried not to yell from the weirdness and slight pain he was feeling. As suddenly as it started, it passed, and Daniel looked back down at the writing.

As he scanned his eyes over the symbols, they slowly began to make sense to him. The alien letters and words seemed to change so that he was reading them in English. This transformation began to go faster and faster; the translation was done within minutes.

"'_In deathly sleep we shall forever stay; until we come to Fetrot, or break of day,_'" Daniel said aloud, as he read the script. "'_But those who disturb us, be forewarned, beware! You'll come out having more than one mind and care._'

"It's a warning," Daniel breathed after he read it again. "They must not disturb the people in there!"

Pushing at his comm button, he yelled, "Guys! Get out of there immediately! The alien text up here was a warning!"

Releasing the button, Daniel waited. There came not a sound from the ship or his comm.

"Guys?"

A minute later, and his comm had remained silent.

"John? Alex? Dude?"

No response.

Thinking that something bad had happened to them, Daniel ran down the hatch the others had used and started searching the halls, calling their names out. At last, he came upon John.

The Colonel was lying on the ground, face down, seemingly unconscious. When Daniel approached him, however, John stirred and opened his eyes.

"Ah!" the Colonel exclaimed as he found himself looking at the floor, his arm flailing up while he pushed himself over onto his back.

"What happened?" Daniel asked, wondering what had happened to render the Colonel unconscious.

"I-I don't know," John said while accepting Daniel's hand in getting up. "I heard your warning about the ship and was just about to get out when this bright flash of light appeared and the next thing I remember, I'm face down with you standing right there.

"Where're the others?"

"I don't know," the linguist replied. "I was looking for all of you when I stumbled upon where you were lying. I haven't found them yet."

"Ohhhh…" came a groan of pain from the next room and the two men quickly walked in. There, on the floor like the Colonel was, lay Alex, rubbing her head where she had hit it when she had fallen unconscious.

"What happened, sir?" she asked.

"We're not sure, Major," John said. "Do you remember a bright flash of light?"

"Yes, sir. I do."

"Well, we think that's the cause of your guys' unconsciousness," Daniel replied. "Anyone see Dude?"

"No, but did you guys check this out?" Alexandra asked, indicating the room.

"No," the two men said and began to scan the room.

On the walls—all the walls—were mini-chambers, each housing a person apiece. The people, they found, had been cryogenically frozen for some reason, their life suspended as they slept in the icy cold. Some of the chambers, however, were cracked and the people inside them weren't people anymore…but skeletal remains of what looked to be a most painful-looking death.

"Cryogenic freezing stops all life, and stops people from aging, let alone living for quite some time," Alex said quietly. "They look like they haven't woken up and most are perfectly preserved."

"Yeah, but I wonder what happened to those who didn't make it. I think that either their chambers broke while they arrived here, or maybe on impact," John replied as they walked down the rows upon rows of the chambers. "Anyone seen Rick?"

"No, sir," Alex said.

"Unh," Dude's moan rose up from somewhere at the end of the room. All three crewmembers raced to where Dude was lying, a trickle of blood pooling on the ground from the cut above his eyebrow and the back of his head.

"Dude! There you are! We've been looking all over for you, man!"

Rick opened his eyes slowly and stared at his three crewmembers. "Who is this _Dude_?" Rick's voice, though it was his normal one, was full of disdain, arrogance, and haughtiness…one so much different than his real one. "Whydo you _call_ me that? You should at _least _have the courtesy to call me by my real name: Gerrati, Crown Prince of Dulanter, soon to be King of Fetrot!"

"What? Dude, are you _okay_? Rick?"

"_I said stop calling me that!"_ the man howled and threw himself at Alex. Daniel caught him and held onto him as John walked to where they were. All of a sudden, Rick closed his eyes…and when he opened them, he started screaming.

"Who are you?" he demanded in his voice that was terrified beyond all reason. "What do you want with me? I am but a lowly mechanic on this ship!" He then proceeded to scream once again in fear.

John looked at Daniel in disbelief and determination. "We're taking him home."


	8. Emergency

Chapter 7 – Emergency

"What happened?" Doctor Fields yelled as the crew rushed him to the infirmary.

"We don't know," Alex said rapidly as they ran down the hall. "He seems to have multiple personalities… We're not sure of the cause."

"All right. Get him hooked up to the scanners. Maybe a full-body scan will help us determine what the problem is."

Dr. Field's orders were carried out, though nothing was found.

"I don't know what is causing this," Katherine said to the rest of the crew in their debriefing room. "As a doctor, I can find nothing wrong with him except that his brain activity is way above normal. It does seem like he has more than one personality…maybe over five—just as you said, Alexandra. I think we need to talk to them in order to find out what was wrong and why he's like that."

"I'll do it," John said, his face full of grim determination. "If he starts to get violent, I'll be able to manhandle him."

"No," Katherine said quickly. "After Dude got back, the General declared him unauthorized to be in contact with anyone except me and the guards on duty. I'll need to go in there and question him myself."

"But Kate, you—"

"I have access," she said quietly, but firmly, effectively cutting off the Colonel's argument. "You all will be able to watch the progress of Rick, and me when I go in there, by a Transsteel mirror in the observation room. I'd better go give him some more morphine. When you all went unconscious, he hit his head and cracked it. He's in a lot of pain now."

"As you say, doctor," Hoffman said. "Dismissed."

Everyone, without another word, walked along the hall to a room that looked down into the isolated unit and stood watching as Dr. Fields entered.

"I should _think_ that princes on your planet get better treatment than I," Dude said, his personality clearly that of Gerrati; his voice held the authority and pompousness of a ruler.

"They do," Kate said slowly; "but you're not a prince on Tierra. You're not even in your own body, for crying out loud!"

He turned to the mirror that was opposite him quickly—the one-way Transsteel mirror the others were behind, the one that would only let people on the other side look in. Looking at Dude's body, he flexed his muscles and bared his teeth. "What kind of treachery is this?" he demanded.

"Nothing of our doing," the doctor said with an edge in her voice.

"Well, I demand that you find my body at once!"

Dude was furious and yelling now, and Kate couldn't think of a time when she had actually heard the real Dude yell.

"We don't know where it is," Dr. Katherine said, no emotions in her voice as she tried to hold her temper.

"_Well then find it!"_

"We will not!"

Dude closed his eyes for a second, blinked, and then looked around as if he was lost and scared. "Where am I?" The anger in his voice was gone and was now, replaced by uncertainty and slight terror.

"Hello," Kate said, exasperated that she needed to ask the entire thing again. "I'm Dr. Fields. What's your name?"

Dude looked at her with troubled eyes. "I'm Mariner, a pilot of the eighth rank. Where am I?"

Kate felt that this man wasn't the scum Gerrati she had been before…and she knew that she needed to get some information about what was going on from this personality.

"You're on a ship above the planet Tierra. We have you in our infirmary. Can you tell me anything about how you got to that planet and why you're in the body you are?"

Rick, or rather, Mariner, looked down in his body and gasped in shock. "This is not my body," he said.

"No," Kate said gently. She took a deep breath. "That is the body of our teammate and friend. His name is Rick Ellerton. You are one of many personalities in his body. Can you feel the others?"

Mariner closed his eyes, making Kate wait. "Yes," he finally said, his voice kind and gentle, yet frank. "I can. There are so many!"

Katherine sighed. "Okay. What can you tell me about your ship?"

"We were hired by Prince Gerrati to take him and the survivors of our world to a new planet called Fetrot; we were in the capital city, Sinnart, at the time—it is why we are called Sinnartians instead of Dulanters…Gerrati never much liked Dulanter as our planet's name. Fetrot was abandoned and habitable, so we thought that we could take that planet for ourselves. But we didn't have any other mode of transportation other than ships and, well, Fetrot was many light-centuries away. So we all went into cryogenic freezing and—"

"And what?" Kate gently demanded, wanting to know more.

"And what, what?" the familiar cruel voice said. Gerrati was back and Katherine didn't have all the information she wanted yet…

Rick didn't know what had happened. He was with the people he knew, he could see and hear them, but his body _just wouldn't respond_!

* * *

It had all started when they had been on The Wasteland. He had suddenly seen a flash of white light and then woke up to find Alex, John and Daniel standing over him, asking if he was okay. He tried to respond; oh, how he wanted to, but he found that he couldn't. It was like a nightmare that he couldn't wake up from.

Then there was the voice.

He began to talk to his crewmembers, against his will, like he never knew them. And that tone he had used! He sounded like the haughty, rich, and snobbish personality he so hated in others back on Old Earth. He wanted to say to his teammates that he was all right except for the places his head was bleeding, but his mouth wouldn't move to form the words he wanted to get out.

As another kind of voice emitted from his mouth, Rick realized what was going on. Vaguely remembering what he seemed to dream as he was unconscious, he saw in his mind an image of four ghost-like beings drifting toward him and pointing at him. They then disappeared as they seemed to pass quickly through him, and that was where the vision had ended.

_Whoa. I've been taken over by other people's minds,_ he realized as he tried to fight for control of his body. _They're so strong, though_.

Giving up fighting for now, he started to probe his mind, looking for any other personalities lying in wait. He found four of them altogether—the four ghosts who seemed to enter his body. There were Gerrati and Mariner, he recognized, as the people who spoke through him, but there were also two more: a small boy named Freh and a woman called Sartra.

_These two haven't surfaced yet,_ Dude thought as he began to struggle against the mental bonds the others kept him in. _Maybe if I just struggle against Gerrati, they'd let me through_. He began fighting harder.

* * *

"As you can see, sir, Dude has multiple personalities. He changes at random between two of them: Gerrati, the all-powerful, all commanding, 100 bad guy; and Mariner the low-class, sweet, helpful pilot. It's amazing what power can do to you…" Katherine said.

"Doctor, please continue," Hoffman prompted, looking across the briefing table at her with a quizzical gaze.

"Oh! Sorry, sir! Anyway, Alex and I think that Dude may have two more personalities that haven't emerged yet. We ran an EKG scan on him, and his brain activity is out the roof. There is enough activity to say that there might be more than three, not including Dude.

"His brain, sir, has the most peculiar characteristic to it. It has both the signs of being active, but also the signs of a coma. I believe that Rick is still in there, but he has put his mind into a coma-like state to protect itself."

The General nodded. "Keep a good watch on him in case another one comes out. John, I need you, Daniel, and Alex to go back to the planet and see what else you can find out there that will help with Rick's condition. You leave as fast as you can get down to the 'Gate Room. Dismissed!"

Doctor Katherine left the room at once, going directly to Dude's room to see if anything had developed. John looked at the remaining people in the room once Hoffman had left to order the dialing to The Wasteland with a grim face.

"Everyone up to going back?"

Daniel and Alex nodded slowly, knowing that if they didn't want to go, they couldn't defy a direct order, either.

"Then let's go."

With a reluctant pace, they all filed into the 'Gate Room and walked through the open portal.


	9. Finding the Cure

Chapter 8 – Finding the Cure 

"I can't find _anything_ that will help us!" John complained over his comm as the team searched the ship again and again for clues as to what afflicted Dude. "Daniel? How's the translation coming?"

"All right," the linguist replied hesitantly. "So far, it's just a description of what the ship was doing prior to their journey here—or wherever they were going."

John cursed harshly. "Just skim over it and see if you can find anything."

"Yes, sir," Daniel replied and started to do what the Colonel had said.

Daniel looked up at the wall covered with the history of the people and focused his gift, making him translate the entire wall so he could 'skim' over the text.

Feeling his energy drain slightly from the power he was exerting from concentrating that hard, Daniel found what he was looking for.

"John! I've found something!"

"Good. I'll be there in a minute. Major, meet us there."

"Yes, sir," Daniel heard Alex say and the comm went dead. Daniel waited for them to come.

"What do you have?" John asked as he and Alex neared the linguist via the main corridor of the ship.

"It's an unfinished account of what happened to them," Daniel said, indicating the last part of the words. "It says that their home world, called Dulanter, was attacked by the Androidians and that this ship was the only one to survive the mass exodus from the planet. There were at least a thousand some people on this ship at one time.

"It then describes every one of them in detail, which I skipped for our benefit. But afterward, it said that their new home-to-be, Fetrot, was many light-centuries away. _That's_ why they're in those cryogenic freezers. They didn't have the luxury of a Spacegate, so they had to rely on their ship to travel at the speed of light to get them there. They've been preserved, or most of them have been, for some hundred years now."

"We know that already. Dr. Fields told us that before. What else do you have, Daniel?" John was getting impatient to get going back to the SGB.

"Well, it says that in order to cryogenically freeze them, their minds needed to be separated from their bodies for some reason. The people successfully did this by having a sort of memory of a computer take their minds and store them somehow in a huge network until they reached their destination. I think that the personalities inside of Dude's head are the minds of the people whose bodies are dead. It says that once they are at the destination, the minds somehow float back to their bodies on their own. I think for those who died, the minds couldn't go back to the body, and so they went to the first available one: Rick. I think that in order for them to get out, we'll need to hook him back up to a freezer."

"That should work!" Alex said, though she didn't seem too sure about it. "I mean, if we hook him up to it and have him frozen, his mind and the others would go with them. Hopefully, somehow, he is able to retain his mind while he's in the coma as the others are deleted or something."

John looked from Alex to Daniel. "It's worth a try. Let's get back to the SGB and see what the General wants us to do."

"Yes, sir," Alex and Daniel said and they started dialing home again.

* * *

"_Where am I?"_ an almost totally feminine voice demanded though Rick. If it hadn't have been a serious situation, Kate would've laughed at it, but now she was both exasperated and relieved at the new personality…it gave her a break from the grating Gerrati, but she needed to start anew once again.

"Hush, it's all right. You're on a ship above the planet Tierra. My name is Dr. Fields. You're stuck inside one of our crewmembers. We're working on a cure for you, but we need your help. What's your name?"

Dude glanced up at Kate with a feminine look that was passed between women. Kate would've thought that a look like that coming from Rick, as well, would've been terribly hysterical but she didn't because the time was grave and she knew there was a woman's mind taking over Dude's body for the time being.

"I'm Sartra," the woman said through Rick. "I am the chief mechanic of our ship. What am I doing here?"

"We were sort of hoping that you could help us with that. We're really not sure why you're in his body. We've sent our best team back to the planet where your ship crashed to see if they could find anything to help us. We're still waiting for them to come back."

Sartra nodded. Looking into the mirror, she gasped, putting a hand up to her head, feeling around at the strange features, shocked to see herself in Rick's body.

"This is your friend?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes," Katherine said, coming to stand near Sartra. "And we want him back."

Sartra smiled grimly. "I can't help you. I'm just a mechanic. One of the bioengineers could help you, but not me. I'm sorry."

Suddenly, a violent tremor passed through her body and she fell on the hospital bed she had been sitting on.

"Sartra!" Katherine yelled, but it wasn't her aura that shone through Dude's person when Rick's body looked up at her.

"Kate?" a shaky voice said from the bed.

"Rick? Rick! Is that really you? Are you all right?"

Dude pushed himself tentatively up, looking around the room, his face the image of pain. "I…don't know. I'm fighting to keep control and I don't know how long I can maintain it. Gerrati is very strong. Is everyone else all right?"

Kate smiled. "Yes. John, Daniel and Alex all went back to The Wasteland to see what they can find, if anything, to help you. And Dagón is getting restless because he needs to stay out of The System and do your job. You don't know how much you're missed."

Dude smiled and was about to say something when he closed his eyes. On opening them, they weren't the eyes of an adult, but rather, the eyes of a child.

"Where am I? Where's my daddy?" Rick said in a small voice, his eyes becoming huge, his face showing the confusion and frightened look of a kid who is all alone. "I'm scared."

"There, now," Dr. Fields said soothingly as she sat next to Dude. "My name is Katherine. What's yours?"

"Freh," the child replied. "I'm six years old. I'm on our ship to Fetrot where daddy's going to take care of us."

"That sounds really nice, Freh. Why were you going to Fetrot?" Kate didn't know whether she should ask or not because the child seemed fragile, and she didn't want him to shrink back and let Gerrati or someone else take control again.

"Daddy said that the bad guys were going to take over our home on Dulanter. Since my daddy was the second captain on the ship, he was allowed to take one other person with him while there was a lottery for the other people. Mommy said that she'd take the chance with the rest of the family and made daddy take me.

"I haven't seen my mommy in a long time. I love my mommy." Freh leaned over and put his head on Kate's lap as he cried. Kate began to stroke Dude's back, trying to offer comfort.

Suddenly, however, Rick's body shook as his hands tightened on her doctor's coat where they had been resting before. An arrogant, threatening voice then said from her lap, "What _are_ you _doing_?"

Kate jerked her arms back and watched as Rick's body straightened up, looking at her with a menacing stare. "Don't _ever_ do that again!" Gerrati said menacingly, sending chills up the doctor's spine.

Dr. Fields got up and stared back at him, her anger flaring. "We're going to get you out of his body if it's the last thing we do!"

"You take us out, you kill him," Gerrati said, his voice rising in anger. "You'll also be losing a very valuable asset. _I_ could be your _king_! You would have many a prosperous year under me. Does that sound good to you? I could forgive your transgressions if I assume power. If you try to extract us, you'd kill me in the process."

"I don't give a _damn _about you!" Kate screamed back. "That man's body is _not_ yours and I _will _get it _back_!" Storming out of the room, Kate didn't look backwards to see the expression of shock on Gerrati's face from his realizing that a woman—_a woman!—_had stood up to him.

Walking to the 'Gate Room, Katherine saw the Spacegate begin the dialing process.

"Incoming connection!" Dagón announced over his comm.

"Who is it?" Hoffman asked, acknowledging Dr. Field's presence.

Typing furiously, Dagón said, "Their clearance code be GC-1, me General."

"Open the iris. Let's hope that they've found something." Hoffman really hoped that they had found something and that no one was like Rick.

"Aye, me bucko," Dagón said in reply and opened the iris as the aqua-colored waters swirled around and established a connection to the other Spacegate.

A minute later, the three crewmembers walked out of the aqua water and entered the SGB 'Gate Room.

"What did you find?" Hoffman asked as he entered the 'Gate Room via a connected doorway. Dr. Katherine entered behind him.

"Sir, Daniel found something," John said. "Tell him."

"What is it?" Joseph demanded.

"Well, sir…when we were on the crashed ship, we found some old runes, and I was able to translate them. It said that each person cryogenically frozen needed to take their mind out of their body by putting it in a sort of, well, _hard drive_ that was connected to a huge network. It also said that when the person's body was awoken, the mind would quickly go back to its original body. So I thought that if the mind goes right back to the body, then, what if the mind doesn't have a body to go back to? I mean, I think that the people in Rick's head are from the bodies we saw that had not much more than bones left. What if they tried to get back to their bodies, couldn't, and so took the next best thing? It all makes sense."

"Very good, Dr. Matthewson, but how do we cure him?" Hoffman was expecting the worse. Rick was his computer specialist, his right-hand man when it came to the technology of other worlds…and to lose him, well, it would be like losing a leg or arm. The General would feel like that for any of his crewmembers.

Daniel shook his head, worrying the General. "Sir, it wasn't my idea; it was Alex's. I think you should ask her."

"Major?" Croft looked at the General with a grimness Joseph knew didn't mean good.

"We think, sir, that we should take Dude back to the planet and hook him up to the cryogenic freezer. I think that it would work since only Dude's mind is in the coma, but we're not sure. It's our only chance, sir. Colonel O'Brien thinks that it's worth at least a shot."

John nodded when the General looked at him. "Sir, if I may say something, I think that it's a better shot at getting Rick back then just isolating him for the rest of his life. He won't get better unless we act on something. Sir, this is our _only chance_!"

Thinking for a minute, Hoffman—to the rest of the crew's relief—nodded and said, "You have a go. Doctor, can you get Dude sedated enough so that he's not violent?"

Fields nodded. "Yes, sir." She ran off to do what the General had said she should do.

Looking back from watching the doctor hurry away, Joseph faced GC-1. "I don't know if this will work, but you have my entire support behind you. God speed.

"Dial to The Wasteland!" Hoffman shouted.

"Aye, Cap'n," Dagón said through the intercom from the Control Room and started the dialing process.

Somehow, they got Rick back to the crash-landed ship. Hooking him up to the cryogenic freezing chamber, he let out a moan that turned into a scream. Rick screamed as each personality was sucked out of him. The screams altered from feminine, to child-like whimpering, to terrified yelling, and then to an anguished scream of rage as the four personalities were sucked into the hard drive and out of the Captain's head.

"_Stop it!"_ Dude's normal voice yelled. _"Turn it off!"_

"Shut it off!" John yelled, and Alex did what he commanded her to. Once she turned it off, they watched in horror as Rick sagged to the bottom of the freezing chamber, seemingly dead.

John reacted fast, but Daniel even faster. Just as John was going to give the order to check Rick's pulse, Daniel was getting the chamber open and Dude out onto the ground, having Alex take his pulse.

Looking up from doing so, Alex smiled. "He's only unconscious, sir. Let's get him back to the SGB." Daniel and the Colonel came to lift Dude off of the ground.

"All right," John said after he and Daniel were supporting Dude between them, "let's go home! Alex, you know the dialing code, right?"

"Yes, of course, sir."

"Start dialing, then."

"Yes, sir!"


	10. No Rest For The Weary

Chapter 9 – No Rest for the Weary

Hoffman ran to the 'Gate Room before Dagón could announce that it really was GC-1 coming through. He ran up the ramp as they helped Dude through.

"How is he?" Joseph demanded as they rushed Rick to the hospital room.

"I'm back to normal, dude," Rick surprisingly answered in a small voice; he sounded weak and stressed, but grateful. "I don't have to fight to gain control. They're gone."

"Thank God for that!" Hoffman said and they got him to Dr. Fields to check him over.

"Sir?" Captain Rick's voice was weak after an hour of the tests.

"I'm right here, son," Joseph said, coming to stand next to the bed.

"I want you to promise me something," Dude said sleepily as the morphine for his body aches began to work.

"Yes, son?"

"Never, I repeat, _never_ send me off-world on a mission again, please, sir…"

Hoffman smiled. "Dude, that's something that I can and will do. From now on, you're the computer expert and Spacegate dialer who never sets foot off world again—except for other things that doesn't involve a mission."

"Yes, dude. Thank you, sir!" Dude said and fell asleep.

* * *

Daniel went to bed late at night, exhausted from the adventure and the near fatal race against time. He was also tired from sitting at his desk reading journals that had been found, dating back to a time before the Dark Ages. The author was a wise man named Doctor Daniel Jackson, and they were fascinating albeit all out of order—the journals had been separated into sections where each journey through the Stargate was separate, and then all mixed up. But the thing that had captivated Daniel the most was that even though the man's name was the same as his, the team he talked about, SG-1, seemed very similar to GC-1…and they had just gone through a similar ordeal that Dude had just went though. Daniel Jackson, the author himself, had had numerous people inside his head, using him as a sort of _lifeboat_. It was resolved differently, but it was so similar, Matthewson had to finish the entry.

Looking at the clock in his room, he saw that it was around one in the morning. Seeing the time made him feel even more tired than he had before. He bookmarked and closed the journal carefully. Not even bothering to change from his combat clothes, he took his glasses off and flopped onto his bed, asleep the minute he got comfortable.

"Daniel! Get up! We need to go off world again!" John's voice woke the linguist from a sound sleep.

Moaning, Daniel lifted his head off of his bed. "What is it? Where are we going?"

"If you'd allow us to enter, I'll explain."

Stumbling out of bed, he put his glasses on and raked his hair somewhat into order. He then opened the door.

Outside stood equally disheveled Alex and John, and Dagón, who looked to be the only wide-awake one in the group.

"Come in," Daniel said, gesturing into his room. Allowing John to sit on the only chair he had in his room, he and Alex sat on Daniel's bed, facing the chair. Dagón stood behind John, seemingly alert for anything.

"Well, Hoffman says that they've sent out a probe to a new world that they wanted us to explore and they found a strange reading. It seems like it's a power source of some kind, and so Hoffman wants us to go out and collect it."

"So it's an easy in, out, and get on with life mission?" Daniel didn't have a good feeling about this. He wasn't fully used to how the life on the _SS Karma_ worked, but it was growing on him.

"So it would seem, but we all know how they go!" John said grimly. "We leave in two minutes. Let's get to the 'Gate Room."

Yawning, Daniel nodded and pulled his combat boots on. Glancing over at his clock, he saw that it was five in the morning. He had gotten four hours of sleep. Sighing and yawning again, Daniel got to the Spacegate room.

"You're going to P38-451," General Hoffman said over the intercom, looking down at them from the Control Room. "Good luck!"

"Dude, we're going to need the radiation combat pack," Colonel O'Brien said over his comm. "We don't know what this source will do, so we might as well be safe."

"Right, man. Programming it now. Have a radical time there, dudes!"

The Spacegate swirled outward and established a connection to the other side.

"Thanks Dude; we will!" The four entered the Spacegate.

From the swirling stars and planets, they exited the Spacegate dressed in radiation suits, which were somewhat like astronaut suits—with an oxygen pack and breathing gear on their back. They also had heavy boots on. Strapped around their bodies, they had holsters with many guns and in their ears were their comms.

"Good morning, campers!" John said over his comm as they walked down the steps of the alien Spacegate inside a building. They were inside of a building. "It's a beautiful day here on P38-451 with a balmy…um, room temperature. Please try not to attract too much attention to ourselves and keep your hands and feet away from the outside of the ride, and please, have a good time!"

The entire crew smiled.

"Enough gear?" Daniel asked later as they waited for Alex to get her scanner out.

"Yeah, but you can never be too careful. We don't know what this source is…maybe radiation," the Colonel said back. Both men glanced back at the struggling Major, though something off to her right caught his eye.

"John," Daniel said as he walked towards it, "what is this?"

The object was a round pedestal with six black squares down the middle of it. In the center of the squares was half of a transparent black orb, with three black squares over it, and three under it. On the sides of these squares, in half circles, were all of the symbols of the Spacegate.

Daniel had never seen anything like it in his entire life.

"That, Daniel, is what we call the Dial-Out Computer, or DOC for short. With that, you can go to any planet that has a Spacegate on it, as long as you know your point of origin symbol and the sequence for the other one. You know the one for the _Karma_, right?"

"Yeah," Daniel said.

"I'll show ya how to dial back when we leave. Right now, Alex found her scanner. Let's go!" They began to walk towards the way Alexandra pointed.

"What kind of radiation is there, Alex?" the Colonel asked a little while later.

"Well, sir, it could be Alpha, Omega or Gamma, but we're not really sure if it actually is radioactive. I mean, the laws of physics could be totally different here, and that the gravitational pull, the mass and other things could be contorted from as we know it."

Looking over at him, Alex saw the Colonel's blank face.

"English, Major?"

"Well, sir," Alex said, a bit frustrated that he wasn't getting her, "there is a type of radiation here, but my sensor hasn't been on enough to pick up on which one. I'm saying that also the way in which gravity and mass work here could be different than Tierra's or Earth's, and so this radiation might not be deadly."

"Radiation? Not deadly?" The Colonel sounded confused. "I thought that was all that radiation was…"

"Sink me! But what else could the reading be, me hearty?" Dagón was confused, as well. "Could there be a wee bit o' chance that the readin' ain't radiation?"

"Well, it could just be a sort of heat signature," Alex said. "Heat gives of a weak sort of radiation."

"Aye, but Dude and I ran some infrared scanners on the planet and there weren't any signs of life."

"Yes, but the source doesn't need to be alive to give off heat! Take a—"

"Hey, hey, hey! Let's just find it first, children. Then we can hold a debate over it!"

"Yes, sir," Alex said and they continued on their way, forgetting their argument.

Walking for a while, the Major stopped suddenly. Pointing her small tracking device at a spot to their right, she said, "Sir, over here! The reading is picking something up."

"All right, everyone! Take the best precautions you can. The thing in there could be anything, so we need to treat it as a threat. Dagón, Matthewson, draw your weapons. Croft, keep me posted."

"Yes, sir," Alex said and walked in after them, keeping back just in case there was some gunfire. Nothing happened.

"Nothing here!" Daniel said over his comm from the room he had secured.

"Same here, m'hearty!" Dagón called from the room attached to the entrance.

"There's no one here," the Colonel said, "but I think I've found the device!"

The rest of the GC-1 crew joined their Colonel in the other room. Standing there, they looked at what John had found: a gold pyramid-shaped device on a raised dais.

Putting her scanner up to it, Alex said, "It doesn't appear to be dangerous, sir. There's no bad radiation coming from it…but it is the source the scanner's picking up."

"All right, campers," the Colonel said, "let's take her back to camp."

"Yes, sir," Alex said and produced a heavy-duty box from Dagón's pack. Placing the object gently into the box, they closed it and left the room.

John and Daniel headed back towards the Spacegate and the DOC first, leaving Dagón to guard Alex and their burden.

"All right, Daniel," the Colonel said with a slight smirk, "we're going to learn the ABCs of dialing on a DOC. First of all, A—Always make sure that you actually know where you want to go, and that you know the address to get there. Secondly, B—Be sure that you press your jewel before entering the Spacegate; if you don't, you'll be the first thud they see and hear on the iris. And finally, C—Constantly know the new point of origin symbol for each planet; with out that, you can't go anywhere."

"All right," Daniel said, a smile on his face. "But how do I dial in?"

"Okay." The Colonel took a deep breath, and then looked at Daniel. "It's _very_ hard."

Daniel raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Really?"

John nodded. "Yes."

"Okay…"

John got even more serious than before. "All right, this is what you do. The first one you dial is the Earth's symbol of origin, which is **Ħ**. Push that one."

Daniel did as the Colonel told him to, and the inner circle of the Spacegate spun around so that the **Ħ **symbol was at the very top and center. The blue beam scanned it in, and the symbol appeared golden on the half of transparent black orb in the middle of the DOC. The symbol on the Spacegate, as well, after being scanned, stayed red on the Spacegate; and the button symbol on the DOC turned an aqua color, just like the water.

"Whoa," Daniel said.

"Yeah," the Colonel said. "And you know the rest of them for _The Karma_?"

"Of course," Daniel said, and put them in, in order:** Φ § Џ Ψ ф ¥**. On the other six black squares appeared the other golden symbols, the second one in the sequence appearing at the top, and the rest following suit down the line—they each stayed red, as well, on the Spacegate, and aqua on the DOC.

"Now comes the hardest part," John said, a very solemn expression on his face. "You need to put your hand on the middle orb and push down."

Daniel did so. The Spacegate made a connection to the other one and the aqua water appeared.

"Very good on your first try. That was really hard."

"Oh, yes," Daniel replied, a serious expression on his face. "It was _very_ hard."

After Daniel pressed his jewel, the team left the world to return to their home. Daniel and John smiled all the way back.


	11. Danger In The Midst

Chapter 10 – Danger in the Midst

"What is it?" Hoffman asked as the GC team escorted the object they had to the science bay of the _S.S. Karma_.

"We don't know, sir," John said rapidly as he jogged to catch up to Daniel and Alex, who were running down the corridor with the box. "But it keeps getting heavier every two minutes or so—it's really heavy now. They need to get it to the isolated examination room as quickly as possible before it's too heavy to move."

"Go!" the General said in reply as he ran slowly next to his Colonel. John then poured on the speed and was down the corridor in a minute.

Alex and Daniel got to the examination room. Once they finally got the very heavy box on a counter and opened the lid, the object inside became as light as it had been at first on the planet.

"That was _very_ strange," Daniel remarked as he gently lifted the object out of the box and placed it into a Transsteel containment container where they could perform tests on it.

"Yeah," Alex replied, typing in commands into the computer. "I wonder what it does."

"I wonder what it says," Daniel replied. "There's a sort of writing on it."

"Hey, Major; hey, Doctor!" John said as he entered the room. "What have we got?"

"Well, sir," Alex said, while gesturing to the artifact. "When we stopped moving it, the object wasn't heavy any more. It was the weirdest thing. Daniel hoisted the box onto the counter, opened the lid, and just took it out of there as if it didn't weigh that much. It's very strange, sir."

"Yes, it is." John then crossed his arms over his chest and winced. Looking down at his hand, he realized he had a shallow cut there. "Hmm… You two keep working on that. I need to go see Fields about this." The Colonel left in a hurry.

"See Kate for a cut? Ha! That's hilarious," Alex snorted as she stared into the Transsteel box before her, pressing her hands against the sides of the almost-invisible container.

"So the Colonel likes the Doctor," Daniel commented while coming to look in, standing next to the Major.

"Yeah. He thinks no one knows it but him. He thinks his momentous longing glances at her go unobserved. The Colonel even probably thinks that we're stupid enough to think that his very frequent visits to the medical wing go unnoticed… Well, it seems to be working for the rest of the team, mind you. They have no clue as to what is going on. You're the first to notice it. I'm not sure that Kate knows it…"

"Wow. The others must be really blind! _She_ must be blind!" Daniel remarked as they began to get ready to perform some tests.

"They are."

"Major?" a new voice suddenly called. It was Lieutenant Rogers, a new recruit from Old Earth, and Alex didn't even look over before she shuddered.

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

"We're ready to start the tests." The slight tremble in the lieutenant's voice made Alex sigh.

"Lieutenant, take a deep breath! You've done this before!"

"Yes, ma'am."

Alexandra turned back to the artifact.

"You know, Alex," Daniel said with a knowing face. "That lieutenant is nervous not because of the artifact…he's always nervous around you. I think it's called, oh, what is it? A _crush_."

Alex looked sideways at him. "Thanks," she said sarcastically.

"We've begun recording, sir," Rogers said over the intercom nervously, clearly having heard what the linguist had said.

Daniel looked back to Alex. "Oops." Then, from the pedestal it had been set on, the artifact began to rise up as Rogers moved it through the different stages of the testing. "Oh! Hey!" Daniel remarked as they turned back to the Transsteel enclosure. "The artifact!"

As they watched it, Daniel began to concentrate on it, trying to read the alien language. It wasn't changing before his eyes as fast as it had on The Wasteland, but Daniel just thought that The System helped the gifts a bit. Slowly, it seemed to come clear.

A few hours passed, and Daniel and Alex had gotten very far on translating and working with the artifact.

"Lieutenant, the readings please?"

"Yes, ma'am," the man replied. "The internal temperature of the artifact is maintaining 57o Fahrenheit. It is emitting small bursts of gamma and alpha radiation, but they're harmless. Nothing seems to have changed because of the testing."

"Thank you, Rogers."

"Yes, ma'am."

"The language is really old," Daniel remarked a little later as they photographed every part of the artifact, keeping them for future references and for Daniel to translate later. "It's one of the most basic forms of writing I've seen anywhere."

"It might tell us something about the people who made this," Alexandra said, looking hopeful. "But if they were so advanced as to make this, then why did they write so primitively?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Daniel said, and then looked up. John had entered the room.

"Hey, kids," he said with a slight smile. "It's already two in the morning, ship time. And, after all, GC-1 _is_ a field team and we have another assignment due in seven hours. I suggest you two go to your rooms and get some rest before we go."

"But sir, we've only just scratched the surface of the—"

"Ah, ah, ah! Major Croft, get some sleep. That's an order. After we're back from our mission, you two can tinker around some more."

"But—"

"Major!" Rogers' voice cried out in a panic from where he was sitting. "The internal temperature is increasing! It's 64oF and rising!"

Alex looked over at Daniel and they both seemed to have the same idea, as did their Commanding Officer. Unlocking the door, John pulled Daniel away.

"I'll handle this! Go get the Spacegate opened! Hurry!"

"All right!" Daniel yelled as he ran out of the room to the dialing room. "Dude!" he yelled, breathless when he reached it. "Dial back to P38-451! Now!"

"Under whose orders?" Hoffman asked, alarmed that Daniel would order him to do something.

"Colonel O'Brien's," Daniel replied. "It's urgent!"

Nodding, Hoffman said, "Do it." Daniel ran down to be in the 'Gate Room with John and Alex.

"Can do, man," Dude said and started putting in the coordinates.

Alex and John came in then, dragging the artifact between them.

"Should we get our suits on, sir?" Alex asked, straining under the weight of the artifact.

"No," the Colonel replied, puffing out a pent-up breath. "We're just going to throw this into the Spacegate." The connection was established and the 'Gate swirled outward, all aqua and glowing slightly.

Just as they were nearing the ramp, however, they needed to drop the artifact in fear of straining or breaking something on their bodies. To both of their surprise, the artifact did not crash to the floor, but instead sat suspended in midair, spiraling slightly, as if it was looking for something. Then, with no warning, the top of the pyramid-shaped artifact slid downwards, exposing many glowing transparent crystals, all each a different color. Then one shot out suddenly, hitting the ceiling. Attached to the crystal was a silver rod.

"Whoa!" John yelled as he moved out of the way. Both Alex and Daniel made it to one side of the 'Gate Room just as more of the crystals shot out. Colonel O'Brien wasn't that lucky.

"Sir!" Alex yelled, but as John turned around to see what the matter was, he wasn't able to react in time. A crystal, attached to a metal rod, hit him at full force through the middle of his chest right above his heart. Carried with the momentum of the speeding rod, the Colonel was flown backwards until the crystal head hit and buried itself into the wall, effectively pinning the Colonel there.

"John!" Daniel cried out.

John let out a cry of pain and rage as he dangled four feet above the ground, his feet hanging in the air, the pole though his chest the only way in which his body was supported. He could hear that Hoffman had pushed the panic button and could hear him summon Kate to come and see what she could do for him.

_Now I'm seeing her for something really serious,_ John said with a grim smile through the pain, _and I don't have to make up a reason. I hope I can at least say goodbye to her alone, and tell her how I feel_…

Dropping everything, Alex, Daniel, and, soon after, Dagón ran up to John, taking his feet and putting resistance on them, trying to ease the stress on his rib cage and other parts the 'arrow' had punctured. They kept from trying to panic so that the Colonel wouldn't struggle more. Seeing their infallible Colonel helpless made them all feel insignificant and small.

"Colonel O'Brien!" John vaguely heard someone shout his name, as the world was beginning to get a bit blurry. Moaning for the last time, the Colonel passed out into a world of complete darkness.


	12. Urgency

Chapter 11 – Urgency 

"Sir, he's unconscious," Doctor Fields said to the General, an answer to his unspoken question. "He must have been in a lot of pain…"

"What can you do for his wound?" Hoffman once again felt the feared feeling of dread—the same feeling he had in the pit of his stomach the time when he thought he was losing Rick.

"I'm not sure, sir," she said, a very grim and worried expression on her face. She began wringing her hands together. "I need to see the nature of his wounds in order to determine if I can help him."

The General nodded. "Go for it. Alex, Daniel, Dagón, and Dude are trying to get the Colonel as comfortable as they can. We need to see if there's any way that we can get John off of that wall."

"Yes, sir," Kate said and quickly left the room, heading back towards the 'Gate Room.

* * *

"We have the Colonel sitting on a tall ladder. That way, the stress of hanging by his chest isn't there anymore," Daniel explained to Kate as she started to climb her own ladder up to John to see what she could about his wound. Alex and Daniel had agreed to help the doctor while Dagón and Dude went to see if they could find anything about the origin of the artifact or what it actually did in the computer system.

"Good thinking," Kate said about Dude and Dagón. "Could you hand me that stethoscope?"

Nodding, Daniel lifted it up to her, both he and Alex waiting impatiently to see what could be done for their leader.

"Well," Kate said, studying the Colonel's wound after checking his pulse, "I don't know. It's something I've never seen before. The arrow and metal shaft is clearly penetrating John's body, but there's no blood. With this size of a wound, you'd think there would be."

Turning back to the Colonel, Katherine saw that he had his eyes open partially. "Hey, John," she said softly. "Colonel, how are you?"

"It _hurts_," John said hesitantly, his voice croaky and dry. There was a tinge of pain and fear in his voice, making the doctor feel sorry for him, and to also worry. "I've never experienced pain like this in a really long time. What happened?"

"Well," Kate said, putting her stethoscope in her pocket so it wouldn't fall, "I think Major Croft could answer that better than I could." The doctor started to walk down the second ladder. Alex stood there, taking in the view of her cousin locking eyes with the Colonel for a moment before she walked out of the room, no doubt to go research John's condition and see what she could do to help him.

"Major?" The Colonel's voice was really weak as he looked down at her.

Trying not to cringe or cry out with frustration at seeing John like that, Alex said, "Well, sir, we were trying to get the artifact back to the Spacegate when it started to do something really weird. Do you remember that?" After a slight nod, the Major continued. "It was getting heavier as we got there and we dropped it, though it didn't hit the ground. Then, it somehow opened up and speared you. It all happened so fast, that I'm not that sure of if you could've dodged it.

"Dude and Dagón are researching the artifact on the databases. What do you want us to do, sir?"

"Get a Sartgun," John said through gritted teeth, while shifting position on the ladder to get more comfortable. The shift made him move the metal bar within him and made it even more painful than it had been.

"But—"

"Major that is a direct order!" Colonel O'Brien snapped, trying hard to restrain his rising anger and frustration. "Do it!"

"Yes, sir," Alex said and ran to get a Sartgun.

The room went into a strained silence. The occasional gasp or soft moan from John was the only thing that made a sound during that brief moment in time. Finally, John broke it.

"Daniel?"

"Yes?" Daniel asked, wondering what the Colonel wanted.

"What have you and Major Croft discovered about the artifact while you two were working on it?" John sounded desperate as he begged for information about his condition.

"Well, John, we're not sure about what it's supposed to do, but I took some pictures of the artifact before it went all haywire because it had an alien language on it. I was going to start translating it when you told us to go get some sleep. I was just going to go do that now, as I think our next off-world mission will be canceled."

Smiling weakly, John said, "Go for it. See what you can see. Tell me what you find."

"Of course," Daniel said and walked out, just as Alex was walking in with the gun her Colonel had requested.

"What do you want me to do with this, sir?"

"Shoot it!"

"But sir…!"

"Goddamn it, Major! _Shoot_ _it_!"

"Yes, sir," Alex replied gently, and took aim.

The artifact, now so close, seemed smaller than it had in the case. It was still somewhat triangular, and small openings on the sides of the artifact seemed to glow. Shooting it, the Major thought, might not do that much damage…but not questioning what the Colonel had ordered, Alex closed her eyes and held her breath.

Pulling the trigger after a moment's hesitation, she opened her eyes just as it fired and watched as the plasma energy blast hit the artifact, where it seemed to be absorbed. Then, after a moment, the energy appeared again, traveling up the many metal spikes protruding from the object—especially the one holding the trapped Colonel.

John screamed in pain.

"Sir…?" Alex cried.

"Shoot it again!" The Colonel's outrageous plea was more than enough to make the Major shoot the artifact on impulse, her brain not processing the information. But this time, instead of watching the plasma energy climb the metal spikes, she had her eyes on John, seeing what happened.

As the energy raced through him, he seemed to glow, a patch of an almost phosphorus substance on his neck and face. Just then, the energy raced up the pole, and the substance was gone, replaced by a scream of agony.

"Sir, you cannot order me to shoot it again because I will not. If I do it again, you could die…"

"No…" John wheezed, his voice expressing his severe pain. "No…you're right. The Sartgun doesn't do anything to it. Can we see if…we—" The Colonel fell unconscious.

"Colonel? Colonel! Sir!" Alexandra pushed her comm. "Kate, General Hoffman, to the 'Gate Room quick! Colonel O'Brien is unconscious…_again_!"

The two came quickly, the General holding the door open for Fields who was toting a bag of medical supplies. As soon as she got into the room, Dr. Fields ran up the ladder and started checking John's vitals. The General turned to Alex.

"Major Croft, do you know how this artifact works?"

"No, sir," she replied back, her voice full of regret. "I don't know what this is made of, either. I think, however, because the poles of the artifact can conduct energy, they must be close to metal. I was just heading to go try to work on it when the Colonel had me shoot it with a Sartgun—twice. It didn't work, as you can see. But, I think if you could get someone with a blowtorch, they might be able to get through it."

Hoffman nodded. "I'll get Rogers on it immediately. Dagón'll be here to help, too. I want both you and Dr. Matthewson working on this right away. You two are our scientists…go see what you can do."

"Yes, sir," Alex said with a grim nod and left the room to head for the science bay.


	13. Working Together

Chapter 12 – Working Together

"How's he doing?" Daniel asked from a table he had converted into a desk, his pictures of the artifact's surface spread out all over. Alex saw that he had taken his glasses off and was using a magnifying glass to help him see.

"He's gotten a bit worse. If you heard me a few minutes ago over the radio, he just went unconscious. General Hoffman and I think that it would be a good idea to try to burn through the pole he's connected to, so that's what Rogers and Dagón are doing now."

Walking over to a computer, she sat in front of it, opening several programs, and started a simulation with a model of the artifact on it. They had scanned it into the computer earlier before the incident and Alex planned on putting it through many different scenarios to see if it would react to anything.

"Why're we here in the first place?" Daniel asked as he rifled through pictures, trying to find the right one.

"The Androidians," came her absent reply as she concentrated on her work.

"Yes, I know, but I mean…" He sighed. "What I'm trying to say is that if the Androidians hadn't gained power, we wouldn't have any reason to be here, and therefore John wouldn't have gotten stuck. Long ago, couldn't the Androidians listen to reason? I mean, there has to be some good in them, right?"

Alexandra stopped what she had been doing on her computer, but she didn't turn around to face him. "Daniel, there are stories that many different races have tried to reason with the Androidians…none of it worked. They're fully evil, and will kill you before you kill them. That's why we all need to do the best we can to try to eliminate all the major threats as possible before the major fight at the end. It's going to involve some self-sacrifice, but we all have done that. You'll get used to it…I promise."

"Thanks," he said to her and they both lapsed into silence, working to try to save their friend from staying impaled to the wall.

"Argh!" Daniel said sometime later, breaking the mutual silence of the bay. "This translating is going nowhere!"

Looking at him from her computer screen, Alex allowed her eyes to adjust to the dim light before she asked, "What's wrong? Can't you translate it?"

When Daniel looked up at her, Alex noticed how bleary-eyed he was and how tired she must look to him. Looking at the digital clock built into the wall, the Major saw that it was six in the morning. They hadn't slept in over 24 hours and it looked to her as if they wouldn't sleep for an even longer time after that.

After a sigh that turned into a huge yawn, Daniel said, "I'm not sure why. When we were on The Wasteland, I just glanced at the alien text on that ship and I could read it. Somehow, it seems like something is blocking my abilities to do it. It's like I can do it in the back of my mind, but when I try to comprehend it, it doesn't go anywhere and doesn't work. I _could _do it the old-fashioned way, but I'd need a reference, a point of origin as to how the language is used. It's not working!"

Alex looked at him and smiled sadly. "Keep trying. It'll come to you eventually."

Daniel sighed. "Yeah, you're right. But I don't want to keep trying! John needs our help _now_."

"Yes, he does," she said, "but if you totally rush through and translate it wrong, or miss something and can't translate it at all, you'll hurt the Colonel even more than the little bit of time wasted in doing it right."

Daniel turned to face her fully. "Thanks."

Alexandra smiled again. "Any time."

"So how're you doing? _What_ are you doing?"

"Well," Alex said, "I don't think you'd understand if I told you. Hasn't the Colonel ever told you never ask me anything?"

"I don't think he has," Daniel replied. "Try me, anyway."

"Okay, we used our molecular scanner to make a 3D copy of the artifact in our computer. I'm then taking different scenarios and am seeing if they work. Like, for one, I'm trying to see what the individual atoms look like, so I'm taking our subatomic magnifier and am enhancing the nucleus to see if it is made of any known element on Tierra, let alone Earth. I have to have the atoms at a precise angle and ratio to other things in order to see them perfectly. I'm also seeing if direct pressure or intense heat or cold on its structure would cause its internal parts to react at all."

"And has anything worked?"

Looking at him, Alex could see that he actually didn't have the blank look Colonel O'Brien usually had when she was explaining things to him.

_Maybe he actually understood that…_she thought. _That would be a definite first._

Shaking her head, she replied, "The atoms aren't anything found on Earth, but direct heat appears to be working. I think the welding torch will work!"

"That's good." Daniel put his glasses back on.

Hesitating for a second, the Major said, "Daniel, has anyone told you that your eyesight is an anomaly?"

Shaking his head, he said, "No. Why?"

Alex sighed. "Normally, when people are uploaded into The System, their abnormalities, like chronic diseases, bad eyesight, amputated limbs, and anything else, well, they all would be repaired and as good as new. The fact that you still have your eyesight from your previous life and came through the Spacegate with your glasses isn't something that has happened yet."

"Really?" Daniel asked, feeling a bit weird. "How do you know?"

Seeing his open curiosity and willingness to learn, Alex couldn't help telling him. "You can't tell anyone, though, but Dude came into The System blind. Yet, even without his sight, he was the best hacker in the world back on the Old World. No one has ever been able to get out of him how he could do it yet."

"Dude was blind? Whoa."

"Yeah. And Damian had lost a finger while, he says, on a mission—though we think that he cut it off in a weapons-check in basic training. But, anyway, when he accidentally found himself in The System, he had all ten back."

Daniel sat in his chair for a moment, letting it sink in. After a while, he asked, "Alex, do you think I'm the Preserver?"

Startled by his abrupt question, the Major sat in silence for a moment. Then, after a second's deliberation, she said, "Only time can tell, Daniel. I cannot judge that now. Now let's get back to work. We both need sleep badly, so we'd better get as much as we can before we fall asleep right here."

"Yes, ma'am," the linguist said and they both got back to their tasks.


	14. Solutions Don't Work

Chapter 13 – Solutions Don't Work

General Hoffman looked down at Colonel O'Brien from the Control Room with his arms crossed. They had turned down the lights almost completely off so that the Colonel could try to sleep. When he was asleep, the General knew, he didn't feel the pain, and that's what Joseph wanted for his second-in-command.

Glancing at the clock, he saw that it was eight at night on the second day Colonel O'Brien was on the wall. The Colonel wasn't eating, nor drinking, so two IVs were inserted into the veins of his hands. He was also getting a high fever, so Dr. Fields hasn't slept at all since the incident, either. There was suddenly a soft knock on the door, which brought him back to the matter at hand. A very tired and disheveled Dr. Fields stepped in.

"How is he?" the General asked, prepared for the worst.

"Well, sir, he says that he's really hot, but that's just from Lieutenant Rogers trying to melt through the metal—it's also from the fever, but it's surprisingly decreasing. He seems fine beyond that. His wound isn't bleeding, nor infectious…I really don't know what to say beyond that he's stuck to the wall and has a slightly high temperature…I've also had, however, Alex tell me that she saw something like a patch of a glowing substance on the Colonel's neck and face when Sartgun energy went through him. I swabbed it and sent it to the lab for testing. I'll be getting the results by this evening."

"That's good, doctor. How is Lieutenant Rogers doing? How far is he?"

"Well, sir, he has been going at it all night and day. He says that it's not any kind of metal that's found on Tierra or Earth—Alex confirmed this. Even with over 24 hours of him and Dagón trying to melt it, they're only about halfway."

"How much longer do you think they'll need?"

"I've talked to Daniel and he says that he's having trouble with the translation of the writing on the artifact. He says that he thinks that now that he's getting used to his powers, he needs to be farther into The System in order for them to work that well. He says that he knows he can do it, but it's like a barrier was formed between the parts of his brain where he can translate it, and then understand it. After he wakes up, he wants to know if he could go off-world to see if it works there."

The General thought about this for a moment, then nodded. "I'll send a note to his room. He has a go, as soon as he wakes up. I'll have Alex go with him. She might be able to see what she can about the place the artifact was found."

Kate nodded. "That's good, sir. But, um…send that note to the science bay. They fell asleep at their stations."

The General laughed for the first time since the incident occurred. "They did? I told them to get some sleep! But, then again, I know what it feels like to be so enthralled in work that the need to keep going is so strong that it makes the need of food and rest disappear until you utterly collapse. I'll send them the note there and have Dagón take them some food."

"Yes, sir," Kate said and left the room, a smile on her face for the first time in a while.

* * *

"Unh," Daniel mumbled as he opened his eyes in the science bay. He didn't like the fact that he had fallen asleep, but he felt like he was more able to take on whatever needed to be done after his nap. Looking over at the other desk, he saw that Alex had fallen asleep where she had been working, as well. 

"Well, at least I wasn't the only one," he muttered to himself as he took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. "But, of course, I'm the one who's different…" Putting his glasses up to his eyes again, he saw that there was a smudge of dirt on one of the lenses. Sighing, he took them off again and cleaned them.

From the other desk came a slight moan. Alexandra was up, though from the sound of it, she had fallen asleep in an unnatural position and was feeling the consequences. When she lifted her head, he could see the lines on her cheek from where she had laid on the keyboard. Turning away, he found a note on his desk.

After reading it, he handed it to a stretching and yawning Alex. "We're going back to P38-451. Hoffman wants you to learn what you can about the room that the artifact was in and he wants me to try to translate the pictures there. He knows that I'm still adjusting to my powers, so he wants me to take them into The System so that I can translate them faster."

"Oh, great. When do we leave?" Alex didn't seem as grumpy as she tried to sound. Daniel gestured to the food sitting on another table.

"We leave, I guess, right after we eat."

"Oh, good! I'm starving!"

"Yeah," Daniel said as he grabbed a plastic goblet of orange Jell-O. "I haven't eaten anything since the day before yesterday…"

"Mm…I hear you," Alex said. "Eat slowly. I don't want to go so soon after I wake up."

"Yeah, but John needs us. I'd like to get there, translate them if I can, and then come back as quickly as I can. I don't want John there longer than he has to be. I'll be back."

Daniel got up from his desk, and though he was still starving, he started walking to the bridge of the ship, intent on finding out all he could about the Colonel's condition and how he could help until they needed to leave for P38-451.

* * *

"How is he?" Daniel asked a minute after knocking on the General's door. 

Tiredly, but not annoyed, the General looked over at Daniel. "Fields says that he's better than yesterday. His fever is going down, and he's been sleeping a lot because of the morphine Kate gave him. He's hopefully not in much pain anymore…but then there's a matter of a new substance found on his head and neck. Fields is checking it out right now."

"How are Dagón and Rogers doing? How far are they?"

Joseph blinked once and yawned before beginning to say, "They're—"

"General!" Rogers shouted through his comm. "We're almost through!"

Smiling, Hoffman said, "There's your answer. Let's see what happens."

Daniel and Joseph watched through the window of the dialing room. Down below them, across the room, was John—weak, sick, and sweating with the metal pole protruding from his chest. Even farther down was the artifact, which was glowing slightly because of the intense heat of the torch. Lieutenant Rogers, wearing welding gloves and mask, was bent over the rod that was connecting the Colonel to the concrete and metal wall, trying his hardest to get through.

After a few minutes, both could hear a snapping sound as the pole began to brake in half. But then, suddenly, right as the shaft was about to snap from the torch, a sudden whirring noise came from the artifact. The artifact 'grew' two more poles from where it had snapped; which then, without warning, were propelled upwards to the Colonel—one into the original wound, the other into his stomach.

John, waking from a medicine-induced sleep, screamed in pain, gasping for air. Hoffman frantically summoned Kate to the 'Gate Room, then turned towards Daniel.

"I want you and Major Croft ready to depart within ten minutes. We need to get Colonel O'Brien off of that wall."

Nodding grimly, Daniel said, "Yes, sir. We're on our way." Daniel ran back to the science bay.

"We're leaving in seven minutes to P38-451," he announced as he entered the room. "John's condition is worsening. We need to get there and get back ASAP."

"What? What happened?" Alex seemed really distressed from the news.

"You'll see when we go. Pack up the things that you think you'll need. Dude has determined that we are safe on the surface without any radiation suits."

"All right," the Major said, and they both started packing.


	15. Heading Back to the Enemy

Chapter 14 – Heading Back To The Enemy

"Alpha-Seven encoded," Dude announced. The aqua water once again appeared as the Spacegate made a connection to the one on P38-451. "You dudes are ready to travel."

"Thanks, Dude," Daniel said, while he walked over to John with Alex.

They looked at their Colonel, sitting above them in a drug-induced sleep, and felt an immense hatred towards the alien race that had made it. They also felt sorrow and a deep sense of helplessness, for their leader was as vulnerable now as they thought he was invincible before.

The Colonel was still sitting atop the ladder, though there were new straps of support under his arms and legs, so he wouldn't go anywhere just in case something would happen to the ladder. He was also sitting on a pillow, so as to ease the pressure on his back and tailbone.

With the two alien metal rods sticking out of his body, John looked like a Thanksgiving turkey, somewhat, with two carving knives sticking out of it. After taking the Colonel's hands and promising that they'd return as soon as they could, Alex and Daniel left through the Spacegate, following their salute to Hoffman and Ellerton.

* * *

"You know," Daniel said as they walked away from the disconnected 'Gate, "without the radiation suits and all the other cumbersome breathing equipment and stuff, the planet's not that bad."

"Yeah," Alex agreed, "but I wish we were here under different circumstances." They went to the room they had found the artifact in.

"I'll be here." Daniel sat on the ground and began translating, a paper in hand for each of the photographs he had taken.

The translation was coming to him easier while in The System, though it wasn't as fast as he would've liked it. He was getting the gist of things and was almost done when Alex called him over.

Pointing to the sort of pedestal where the artifact had been found, she said, "There are writings here. Can you translate them?"

"I'll try," the linguist said and began to decipher them.

"'_The threat of destruction will spur us on, you cannot even hope; that when threatened, we are an explosion, when detonated, no one can cope…_'" Daniel muttered a minute later, reading the inscription. Reading it again for good measure, he hadn't noticed Alex had knelt by him until he jumped a bit when realization sank in.

"Alex! The artifact—it's a bomb! We've got to get back there!"

"Oh, God," she said. "Do you know how much time we have left?"

Daniel nodded as they ran to the Spacegate and the DOC. "I've gotten the translations done. We have 96 hours from when the bomb was activated. We have about a day left, or so." Daniel finished dialing in and the 'Gate established a connection. Pressing his jewel, Daniel and Alexandra quickly ran up the stairs to the Spacegate and into the rippling aqua portal.

"It's a bomb!" Daniel announced when he walked down the ramp on the _Karma_. "We've translated it, and it's a bomb!"

"What?" Hoffman exclaimed over his comm as he walked down the steps from the Dialing Room. "A bomb? Are you sure?"

Nodding, Daniel said, "Yes. My translations are correct. The writing on the artifact also describes what it does."

"Which is?"

"It'll detonate when threatened—don't ask me how. It also says that we have 96 hours from when it felt threatened to when it'll explode. I think that when we disturbed it was when the countdown began and so we have about a day or so to stop it before it goes."

The General glanced up at his Colonel and then back at the two people before him. "Do what you need to by all means necessary to stop the bomb and to get Colonel O'Brien out of there."

"Um, sir?" Daniel said, stopping Joseph before he left.

"Yes, Daniel?"

"The artifact, besides describing extensively about what the explosion could do to the Sinnartians, the Androidians, the Guardia, the Machiá, and many more peoples, it said that after the first 36 hours of spearing something it releases a pathogen into them, which starts to make internal organs begin to fail if that thing happens to be living. It also says that it can only be detected by energy—that's the thing on John's face and neck. The writing also said that we have until an hour before the detonation to cure him and shut the bomb down before it becomes too late…"

"Do whatever's necessary," the General repeated grimly, and turned away, seeming defeated by all the bad news he had received in the past week.

Daniel turned to look at Alex. "Let's get going."

"First, let's drop all this stuff off back in the science bay and pick up different things. I need to get my tools." Daniel nodded, and they left to get things done."

* * *

Hoffman walked into the room where Dude and Dagón were still trying to research the origins of the artifact. Dagón had rejoined Dude in the search after the failed attempt at freeing John and had just sat down when the General walked in.

"Find anything yet?" he asked them, eager for any news that was new to them all…news that could make them more aware of the danger they had discovered, and news that could help them stop the bomb and free their man.

"Not yet, sir," Dude said. "The awesome Dagón-dude has come back to help me, so we should get farther. There's really virtually nothing about this artifact or the people who created it in the databases we've gone through. Sir, if you'll pardon me, I'll be as radically bold as to say that I've hacked into some of the most respected and powerful alien race's databases, and have still found nothing. I'm trying to see if the ancient data ports of the Guardia are hackable, but I'm not getting anything."

"Keep up the search," Hoffman said, and handed each of them a cup of a caffeine-enriched drink that was ever so popular on _Karma_. The drink kept the body going even if it was on the verge of collapsing, and it tasted a whole lot better than coffee did. They had to drink it regularly, though, because if they didn't, they could just collapse right there and then, and they wouldn't wake up for a very long time.

"Thanks," Dude and Dagón said when the General returned, handing each of the searchers a steaming cup of goopy lime-green liquid. Dagón didn't seem so enthusiastic, as his symbiote didn't digest the drink that easily.

Raising his glass up in the air, Dagón said glumly, "Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!" and gulped it down quickly, grimacing at the feeling in his stomach and heart.

"Yeah, dude. You're so totally right." Dude swallowed it quickly, and they both went back to work.

Joseph, smiling weakly, then went to see how Alex and Daniel were doing, bringing them some drinks, as well.

"Argh! This isn't working!" Alex complained loudly as the General entered the room. "Are you sure that's what it said?"

"Very sure," Daniel replied. "It said that the countdown mechanism is under that panel. We just have to find a way to get to it. The crowbar didn't work, right? Do you have a welding torch? We know it goes through this metal."

Alex looked a bit defeated while she replied, "It's worth a try. Could you hand it to me? It's in that box over there. Oh, and those gloves and helmet, too, please. Thanks."

Both scientists looked up suddenly to find Hoffman standing there, offering the drink. "I wasn't doing anything, so I thought that both of you could use some more caffeine."

Alex smiled. "Thanks."

"What is it?" asked Daniel.

"A drink with very high caffeine levels," Joseph said. "It keeps you going, though if you don't drink it regularly while you're working, you fall into a deep sleep and cannot be awoken for a long time."

"Ah. Gotcha." Daniel looked into the cup he was given and saw the special neon green liquid there. "What's it called?"

Joseph looked thoughtful. "It doesn't really have a name. We just call it _That Drink_. It needs one, doesn't it?"

"I guess," the linguist said and took a sip. "Whoa! It really has a kick to it! You should name it something like _Pow_, or _Whoosh_, or _Zing_."

The General smiled. "I think I like _Whoosh_. I'll spread the news. Daniel has renamed _That Drink_ to _Whoosh_." He left the room then, laughing a bit at the new name.

The two finished their drinks and turned back to their work with renewed energy and strength.

"I'll start to work on this," Alex said, putting her welding helmet and gloves into place. "Why don't you go see how Kate is doing? See if she needs any help. I'll call you via comm if I need anything translated or if I get this thing opened."

"_When _you get it open," Daniel amended as he nodded. "All right. I'll be back." The linguist turned and left the room right when he heard the torch ignite and start to burn through the metal. Turning back, he moved his gaze from the hard-working Alex to the trapped John. Saying a silent prayer for the safety of all of GC-1 and the salvation of their Colonel, he left to talk to Kate.


	16. Ideas

Chapter15 – Ideas 

The linguist found Dr. Fields in her medical bay, working on her computer.

"Hey," she said, a slight smile on her face. "How can I help you?"

"Actually, Kate, that's my line. I've been sent here by her Sovereign, Alexandra the Great, to see if you need any help." Daniel looked over at her computer as he said that and was surprised to see a model of the Colonel's DNA there.

"Well, I've found the problem. Just as you said, there's an alien pathogen that was transmitted to Colonel O'Brien from the artifact. The good news is that it is not contagious, but, if I were you or Alex, I'd try not to stay in contact with that thing for long periods of time. Every hour or two, I want at least one of you to check in with me so I can run some tests to determine whether or not you two have picked it up."

Daniel nodded. "What're the germs causing?"

"Well, they're attaching to his DNA, as you can see on the model here. They're destroying it gradually, and soon it'll be irreversible. Just like you said, they react to energy, and they're attacking John's inner organs, particularly his liver, lungs, and heart. I'm working as fast as I can to create an antidote for it, but I'm not sure about what it needs to cure it. Do any of your translations tell you how?"

The linguist quickly pulled out the sheet of paper he had used to write down his translations. Skimming over them, he finally read, "The inscription says, 'The pathogen released can only be reversed by blasts of energy.' I guess that means that the way that we detected it in the first place was the way that we can kill it."

"Yes, but the problem is that if we bombard John with energy, we might kill him, too."

The bay became silent as doctor and linguist thought. Suddenly, an idea came to Kate.

"However, if we put John in a coma state," the doctor speculated, "we could preserve his mind, just like Rick's did, and then shock him enough to kill the germs. I have the skills to repair anything in the human body…if we do that, then only his body would just be damaged, and I can repair him!

Kate just looked at him in astonishment, thrilled that she had figured out the solution. "I'm going to talk to Hoffman."

Smiling, Daniel went back to the 'Gate Room, to see what he could do to help Alex.

* * *

"We think we found a way to get the virus out of John," Daniel said as he rejoined Alex. She was almost done burning though the metal and was nearly to the control panel within.

"That's great! Now if we could only disarm this bomb, we'll be just fine." Alex didn't sound too optimistic.

"Well, I'm here if ya need anything," the linguist replied, and the panel cover fell off. "Oh, well, I think my help is needed now."

"Yeah." They bent to study the inside.

The inside of the bomb was hollow with a screen, which was counting down in the alien language on the artifact. Also in there were five glowing orbs, seemingly the power source for the bomb. The five balls were positioned with four to the sides and one in the middle, so that if someone were to look at it, he or she would only see three next to the other.

The weird thing about the bomb was that there were no wires or anything in there. Alex couldn't just cut a wire and be done with the bomb—she'd have to somewhat take it apart and try to find out where it got its power source.

"I don't suppose you know how to disconnect it, now would you?" Alex asked, the stress of getting the bomb disarmed and their Colonel safe finally getting to her.

"As a matter of fact," Daniel said, reaching for one of his translations, "I might." Skimming though it once again, the linguist found what he had been searching for. "The only place where it talks about turning the power off is this: '_In the middle of all; there's many a ball; and once it is North you can see; the left it is wrong; the center's all song; so the rightly right one could it be._'" Daniel thought for a minute. "It's a riddle…"

"I see that! This whole race must've been full of them! Okay…would you repeat it, please?"

Daniel did so.

"Okay. The left and center are wrong, so if I just remove this one—" Alex said slowly as she reached in to grab the one on the right—"it'd—"

"Wait!"

"_What?"_ Alex jerked her hand back and looked at him.

"Are you sure that's the one you want to extract?" Daniel then told her of the danger they faced if they took out the wrong one: by removing any of the other four balls, the bomb would detonate prematurely, and they could kiss their efforts to save John, or anyone else for that matter, goodbye.

"No!" Alex said disgustedly. "Okay…" She muttered the riddle two more times to herself before… "I got it!" she cried. "_'Once it is North you can see'_—that means that we need to be facing north in order to have it work. From our current position, we are facing west, so if I had taken that ball out, it would've blown up. All right. That's just nice. Let's get into the side that we're supposed to be in."

They popped open the southern panel from the inside.

"Yep, there they are again. Okay. The one we see as left is wrong, and the one in the center one is wrong, as well. So it must be this one…Daniel, how much time do we have left?"

After checking and translating the countdown, he replied, "Less than three hours."

"All right. Let's hope this works…"

Saying a silent prayer for guidance, Alex picked the ball up and removed it from the indentation it had been sitting in. The bomb immediately stopped the countdown and shut off. The bomb was disarmed, but the alien sickness that was taking over John's body still had to be killed before it became too late.

Alex smiled up at Daniel, who turned his comm on.

"Dr. Fields, Colonel O'Brien is ready for the treatment in the 'Gate Room," he said over it, and the doctor came as quickly as she could, all her supplies at the ready.

"Alex, I want you to check the Colonel's temperature all through this," Kate said as she set down her portable workstation on the floor right in front of the Colonel. "We're going to attempt to put him in a coma-like state in order to carry out the plan Dr. Matthewson devised. I need to know if this drug is working or not."

Alex nodded and started to climb a second ladder Hoffman had ordered to be sent to the 'Gate Room just for this procedure.

"Daniel, you get the job of shocking him. You're the only person left able to do it. I need to be up here to check his pulse and see if the virus is indeed dying. Are you okay with that?"

Hesitantly taking a weapon he had never encountered before, he grimly nodded and asked for its name.

"It's called a Joltgun. It can emit large quantities of electricity, somewhat like the stun guns on Earth, though this is way more powerful. I've set it to an almost fatal level. All you have to do is shoot him once or twice."

The doctor paused slightly and said a prayer before continuing. "All right. I'm putting in the serum."

Kate, after taking out a syringe and extracting the cap, said to the Colonel softly, "We're going to sedate you very heavily, sir. It's going to put you into a coma, though it's not permanent and you won't feel any pain. The pathogens inside you are breaking down your major organs, Colonel, and the only way to cure it is to shock you enough for them to die, though not enough to kill you. This way you won't feel anything. It's just like falling asleep."

John nodded slightly, and was thought to have mumbled, "Do what you have to do," before the doctor injected him.

They waited for it to work.

As the wait went on, all of GC-1 had come to the Dialing Room to watch what was happening—all except Damian, who had been nowhere to be found for the half of week the Colonel had been skewered. Everyone held their breath as they looked on in anticipation.

"The serum worked," Kate said, while nodding to Daniel. "Alex, don't touch him as Daniel fires."

"Yes, ma'am," the Major said, and both women backed away as much as they could while on the ladders.

Looking around, Daniel nodded to everyone in the Dialing Room and pulled the trigger on the Joltgun. Everyone watched in horror as the Colonel's face and chest shone a livid orange, showing clearly where the germs were. But, slowly, the orange patches began to decrease. The energy was working!

After checking John's pulse and temperature, Kate nodded again, and Daniel once again pulled the trigger on the man who he would trust with his life. This time, the pathogens were hardly existent, though the Colonel's body started to twitch slightly.

"One more time, Daniel," the doctor ordered softly, hoping that it wouldn't kill the Colonel. Daniel obeyed the doctor's orders. As the electricity flowed throughout Colonel O'Brien's body, none of the orange patches were there. The Colonel was cured, and the bomb had been stopped! They had done it!

All of a sudden, however, amidst the cheering, the bomb, thought to have been dead, retracted its poles and disintegrated to dust in a blinding flash of bluish-purple light. John was free of the two rods stuck through his body and so slumped forward, threatening to fall off the high ladder. Dagón rushed into the room.

Between them, both Daniel and Dagón managed to get the Colonel down from the ladder and to the medical bay. Crisis had somehow been adverted once again.


	17. Feelings Confessed

Chapter 16 – Feelings Confessed

After the Colonel's immediate checkup, Dr. Fields debriefed the crew of GC-1 with the most peculiar news.

"The places where the rods penetrated the Colonel—his chest and stomach—they aren't there anymore. They're completely healed. There was no sign whatsoever to say that he had been, well, for the lack of a better term, _skewered_ by that bomb."

"So he'll make a full recovery?" the General asked.

"Well, sir, to tell you the truth…all he has to do is wake up from that coma to be fine. I'd like to keep him in the infirmary for a while to keep treating the first-degree burns he received from the Joltgun, however. I've healed him once already and most are gone, but there are just a few more there that need to be healed. Other than that, he's in perfect health. There are no more signs of the pathogens."

"Thank God," Hoffman said, and they all left the debriefing room to go visit Colonel O'Brien.

* * *

"Hey, guys," O'Brien sleepily greeted the entire crew and team of GC-1 as they entered the room, minus Damian. "Sir," he acknowledged the General. John had just woken from the coma a few minutes before and was just getting used to his surroundings.

"Man, have you had enough adventure yet?" Dude asked, marveling at the way John took this all so naturally.

"Oh, well, you know. A little time off doesn't hurt anyone." Everyone smiled. "But, I'd like to get back into the grind as soon as I can. It was pretty boring just sitting up there, feeling like crap, and having the rest of you scurry around to try to find the cure to get me off of the wall…not that I'm complaining, mind you. I'm grateful for all who helped get me down…

"I'd like to thank…my _mom_—because without her, I wouldn't have been here and nothing would've been possible," the Colonel began, pretending to be on an awards show. He received many giggles and laughs and was holding a hospital cup as a trophy while a pen served as a microphone. After that, however, he ended quite seriously. "I'd like to thank my team, Major Alex Croft, Dr. Daniel Matthewson, Captain Rick 'Dude' Ellerton, and my man—er, _alien_—Dagón for their undying loyalty, determination, and friendship—without them, I'd be one very sick, very dead man. I'd like to thank Dr. Kate Fields, PhD, as well, for curing me from the disease and allowing me to take up space in her medical bay." Kate beamed at this and nodded to John, who was staring at her with a smile.

He continued.

"I'd also like to thank everyone who worked behind the scenes, like the nurses, technicians, mechanics and everyone else for helping me out. And, lastly, I'd like to mostly thank my CO, Major General Joseph Hoffman, for his unwavering persistence and resolve to get me off the wall, to save me from the sickness the artifact was emitting, to stop the bomb at all costs, and to stop me from making a bigger hole in the wall." There was more laughing there as the General grinned like a maniac. "Without him," John continued, "this outcome wouldn't be possible at all, and to that, I give my eternal gratitude."

Hoffman and O'Brien shook hands, and a huge cheer erupted from the gathered crowd. The celebration lasted throughout the night with much eating, and the drinking of _Whoosh_. Everyone now knew of Daniel's renaming of the drink, and they all liked it.

"Daniel, I didn't know you had it in you!" John told him later from his hospital bed as he almost drained his cup of _Whoosh_ in one gulp. The Colonel had been getting nervous about not being able to leave his bed, but the crew included him enough so that he was used to it now. "That's a really good-fitting name!" he continued about the drink. "_Whoosh._ Wish I thought of it before…"

"Yeah, well, when it was christened _Whoosh_, you were still sitting there, hanging on to life," Daniel said, glad he had voiced his opinions about the drink aloud to the General. "_Whoosh_ will be named in memory to the fast-paced way we all worked to save one of our own." By this time, everyone was listening to the two's conversation, and they all nodded in agreement.

"To loyalty, honor, friendship, and courage! May GC-1 never find them lacking, and may good luck and safety here abound," the General said while raising his glass. The others all did the same.

"Hear, hear!" they all cheered to his toast, and they gulped the rest of their caffeine-charged drink down. The party continued on into the night.

The time came to turn in when Hoffman announced that it was already two-forty in the morning, according to the ship, and anyone who wasn't in his or her bedroom by three o' clock would be punished severely. The partiers began to trickle out of the room. Alex, Daniel, and Dude all walked up to the Colonel at the same time to bid him goodnight. Dagón had already gone to bed.

"Thanks for your time, and your _Whoosh_," the Colonel said in reply with a smile. "I expect you three, plus Dagón, to come back tomorrow and explain everything to me in great detail."

"We'll be there, dude!" Rick said.

"Yeah." Alex agreed. "Our missions are postponed until you're well. We'll have a lot of time to spend with you."

"Oh, goody," John replied, and smiling, the three walked out of the medical bay.

Once his team members left, the Colonel was finally alone with Dr. Fields.

* * *

"Thank you," he said to her later after she checked his temperature. She looked over at him and smiled.

"You're welcome! It's the least I could do."

"Do you think," the Colonel said, waiting until she was standing right next to his hospital bed, "that I could stay here?"

"Well, Colonel—"

"John," O'Brien said. "Please call me John."

"All right. John, you're going to be here for a week or so, anyway. Why do you ask?"

The Colonel punished himself inside for bringing the subject up, while closing his eyes tightly for a second and balling his hands into fists. Then, shaking his head, he smiled. "I'd like to take more time off."

The doctor cocked her head to one side. "Come on, Colonel! We both know that's not the real reason. Why do you want to stay here, really?"

"Well, um…I, um…" He looked up at her, and their eyes locked. In that moment, he willed her to know how he felt.

Kate instantly saw the affection in his eyes, and was taken aback. "You…?" She gestured to herself as she said that.

The Colonel could only nod.

Dr. Fields sat down on a chair that had been pulled by the bed and just sat there, staring into space, her pulse racing, butterflies fluttering around in her stomach.

"For how long?" she asked softly, wanting to know how long she had been blind.

John sighed. "Maybe a year, maybe a bit more; I'm not sure how long exactly, but it's been a while."

"Why haven't you told me before?" She looked upon him with new eyes, seeing not just a colleague and friend, but also someone who had been in love with her for a long time.

"Well…" John began, holding his hands out in a helpless gesture. "The time wasn't right," he finally said, "and…well…I was a bit nervous and afraid to. I didn't know how you'd look at me after that."

There was a long period of silence, one where John knew he had blown his chance with Kate. Mentally cursing himself, he was taken aback when Kate spoke again.

"Well, John…you can be sure that how I look at you now is not with contempt or disgust." Her voice was not bitter, nor was it angry. A spark of hope rekindled and leaped within John.

"May I ask, then, what you'll feel towards me?" The Colonel tried but failed to keep the hope out of his voice.

Looking up from her lap, she smiled at his hopeful expression as he took one of her hands. "Love," she said simply. The doctor watched him with a smile as he leaned towards her, but closed her eyes just as he kissed her with all of the love he had kept inside. The way Kate opened up to him and deepened the kiss to something extremely intimate gave John his answer to how her feelings were towards him.

After a final extensive kiss, Kate made John fall asleep where he was, and went to her room, feeling lighthearted and free.


	18. Time Goes On

Chapter 17 – Time Goes On

Once outside the medical bay, Dude began to walk fast towards his room after saying goodnight, as he was almost asleep on his feet. Alex hung back with Daniel as they walked.

"Good job," she said as they rounded a corner. "Not many have had the courage on their second mission off world and in a crisis to do the things you did. They usually either don't want to go, for fear of messing up, or are so confident they can do anything right that they _do_ mess up. You're one of the brave few who actually didn't think too much and just went with your gut instinct, doing it exactly right."

"Thanks," he replied. "It's strange…the more time I spend on this ship—it's almost been three weeks now—I feel more at home; especially with the people. I mean, I can tell you where the engine room is, and I've never been there. It's like it was uploaded into my brain or something. I feel like I've been a part of this team all my life. But this entire ordeal, without you, the General, Dude, and Dagón, I'd have been totally lost. Give yourself some credit!"

Nodding, Alex relented. "All right, but you did do a really great job…"

"Thanks. I know our efforts were good because we got our man back and still have the ship safe and sound. There's really not much more I can ask for." He stopped by his room's door and opened it with the palm-scanner attached to the doorframe. Looking over at Alex—who was doing the exact same thing to her room right next to his—he nodded deeply and said, "Goodnight."

"You, too," she replied with a half-smile, and they both went into their rooms, falling immediately into a deep sleep with the satisfying feelings of a huge accomplishment and a job very well done.

* * *

Three weeks went by without incident. Colonel O'Brien was still in the hospital wing, but he was doing much better. His burns had been so severe that Kate couldn't heal him that quickly with her abilities. John didn't mind, however. He had been moved to the corner hospital bed and had all the privacy he wanted. He could be alone with Kate, as well…and neither of them was complaining.

Dagón had spent much needed time in Monileek during the period of inactivity, refreshing and repairing his body with the aide of his symbiote. Dude had used the time to crack a few more codes and hack into a database he hadn't had the time to get into before. The General had gotten some much needed sleep. Finally getting the time to recalibrate the ship's oxygen scrubbers and engines, Alex had used her time wisely. And Daniel had caught up on reading the journals had had gotten.

The journals were fascinating, detailing every single mission Daniel Jackson and his team had gone on…and there were hundreds—enough to fill 45 huge, thick notebooks. He took his glasses off after finishing a particularly gross mission where the team's alien, Teal'c, had been stung by a huge bug and began to rewrite his DNA; it had been messy, and quite gross, but they managed to avert disaster and somehow return everything to normal. Sighing with a sort of relief, Daniel put his glasses on, checked his watch, bookmarked his place, and left for the infirmary.

As was their custom for the week, Alex, Dagón, Daniel and Dude all congregated around the Colonel at 13:00 hours to talk the rest of the day with him and to keep him company. Walking into the infirmary, Daniel found that he was the last one there.

After apologizing for being late, he sat down and they began talking. After an hour or so, they began to tell Daniel about the Androidian race.

"While they were in command of Old Earth, they wreaked havoc, enslaving the strongest on the planet and killing the weakest," Alex explained. "They were banished through the Spacegate we have on Earth by the most powerful race of aliens called the Guardia. They then buried both 'Gates so that the Androidians never could come back…for at least as long as the Spacegate and Stargate were buried. We've heard that the aliens have been trying as hard as they could to get back to Earth in order to take over once again. And we have been preventing them from doing that so far." She fell silent, smiling slightly at the bewildered-looking Daniel.

John looked at the linguist with sympathy, but continued telling anyway. "There are two forms of Androidian, Daniel," the Colonel said. "One is the larva stage, which Dagón has in his chest, wound lazily around his heart. It keeps his blood flowing better than all of us, and can heal any injury or sickness. It allows him to have very long life."

"Is that so, Dagón?"

"Aye, it is, matey," said Dagón. "An' I've the cuts t' prove it." The Machiá lifted his shirt and the crew looked at the diagonal lines in the shape on an 'X' right in the middle of his chest. After a minute of coaxing from Dagón, the Androidian larva poked its head out, screeching for all to hear.

It was a deep blue with red eyes and tongue. It was long, like a snake, but the head somewhat resembled that of a seahorse. Its mouth was huge, with no teeth and shaped like a tube. It didn't look right coming out of Dagón's chest like that.

"Whoa!" Daniel exclaimed as the Androidian larva retracted back into its owner's chest.

"Aye," Dagón said again. "Me life depends on him residin' in me. If he was to leave, me heart'd stop beating, for the Androidian gods wanted us to need the larva." He paused. "Methinks it's time to tell him of the Androidian gods, me buckos."

"All right, Dagón," Alex said. "I'll tell this one.

"The other form of the Androidians is almost humanoid, though they have characteristics of different things and are not living, but are, in fact, androids—hence their name. Most of the 'gods,' as they call themselves—there are ten total most-powerful gods—took the ideas of Greek gods and transformed themselves so that they resembled them. Case in point: the Androidian goddess Aphrodite actually can seduce men by the touch of a hand, and is told to be the most beautiful goddess of all. And the Androidian god Hades actually does rule a world that has the river Styx on it as well as dead people living there. His hair is even supposed to be on fire!

"This race of aliens makes their people fear them, and they're always power-hungry. Those impersonating male Greek deities have a loose bond with the females and vice-versa. Every single one of them, however have a very fragile relationship with the others so they're usually always fighting amongst themselves, which is most times a good thing. You'll become more accustomed to the names of the deities and how their powers work in time. You've probably studied most of them and know what they did…now you have to learn them all over again, but this time, they're real…and can harm you if you aren't aware."

"Yeah, no pressure," John interjected.

Daniel smiled. "Could I see the files on them sometime? I'd like to start seeing what I can remember from ancient Greece. I majored in World History, after all."

"I'll totally bring them up for you, man," Dude offered. "It's the least I can do for someone as radical as you."

Daniel smiled. "Thanks, Dude. I'd really appreciate it."

Right then, Kate walked in with her medical clipboard. There was something different in the way she looked at Colonel O'Brien, but neither Alex nor Daniel could place exactly what it was.

"All right, everyone, I'm releasing the Colonel from the medical bay. I just told Hoffman and he said to tell everyone that you will be going off world tomorrow, so get rested! I hear that you're going to P97-080, as there is definitely some Androidian activity there. He'll debrief you on this subject at 15:00 hours. Until then, you're all free."

"Sweet!" Dude exclaimed. "Let's go to the mess hall!"


	19. Team Learning

Chapter 18 – Team Learning

"You know," Colonel O'Brien said a while later over lunch, "this food is way better than the hospital food was. You'd think they could import food from here to the other room just down the hall…"

"Yeah, well, you know how Fields is," Alex said as she took a sip of her milkshake, "she has the food specially made so that it's healthy for you."

"Oh, yeah…but still—I mean, lime Jell-O doesn't exactly beat an Ice Cream Sunday Special from our kitchen, or her bare ham sandwiches can't do justice to the hamburgers with the works we have here. It just doesn't make sense…she feeds us stuff that tastes bad."

"But it's still good for you, that that's what matters to her," Alex said.

John was about to say something back when the door opened, and a man Daniel hadn't seen before walked in.

"Can I help you?" John asked as he got up from the table and walked over to the man.

"I appear to be lost, sir," he said as he snapped into a salute; the Colonel returned it and told him to be at ease. Nodding the man asked, "This isn't GC-2's kitchen, is it?"

"No…Lieutenant," the Colonel said as he saw the man's rank. "You're on the entirely wrong part of the ship. You're supposed to be two floors down. This is GC-1's kitchen…we have the top two floors. Here, I'll show you to the elevator."

"Thank you, sir," the lieutenant said and the two men walked out of the mess hall.

"GC-2?" Daniel asked. "We're not the only GC team on the ship, let alone around Tierra? No one told me there were others!"

"We were actually getting to that, man," Dude said as he took a bite of cheeseburger. "The Colonel wanted us to debrief you about the things Hoffman clearly left out or forgot to mention, and answer any questions that you would have. We want you, man, to totally be on the same page as we are, and we all want you to totally feel at home and like one of the team."

"All right," Daniel said with a smile. "What about the GC system? What's it all about?"

"The GC system is an organization that protects both Earth and Tierra," Alex told him. "The government back on Old Earth knew about the threat from the Androidians for quite some time now. The GC teams are Tierra and Earth's last defenses against them. We're supposed to gather information and start to assassinate the Androidian gods; so far, we've only managed to kill one: Artemis…and she was pretty hard to kill. The others, Aphrodite, Ares, Hades, Hera, Apollo, Poseidon, Hermes, Dionysus, and Zeus, will probably be even harder. That's why the government's so worried about them.

"There are currently seven GC teams. Each number denotes how important each is…therefore GC-1 is the most important and has the best personnel on it, while GC-7 is the least important—they are negotiators for crying out loud—though important, nonetheless. There are three main ships in which they operate from. GC-1 and 2 both operate from the _Karma_, as they are the most important ones—the Androidians don't even know of our existence. GC-3 and 4 operate from the _SS Shield_ and all of GC-5, 6, and 7 operate from the _SS Solar Flare_. We usually stay separate, and do not communicate with the others. That's just in case any one of the teams gets captured so they actually, honestly, don't know what the others are up to…the only ones who know everything about the GC teams are the President himself, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It's somewhat complicated, but it works."

"All right," Daniel said after a long pause. He was bewildered by all the information he received, but was still thirsting for more. He looked around at the table, debating whether or not he should ask the question that had been poisoning his mind for the longest time. After a second's deliberation, he decided to ask it. "What about you guys? Why were you recruited for The System? Where did you come from? What's your background?"

Alex looked towards John, who had just gotten back from walking the Lieutenant back to his floor. He nodded. "Okay. I'm from Raleigh, North Carolina. I was recruited out of almost-retirement because I was the only one the president would depend on to head his most trusted team."

Smiling, Dude decided it was his turn. "Dude, I was recruited off of the California reserve when my hacking skills got me into military intelligence. From there, they trained me and sent me here…haven't been surfing since, though. It was a total bummer."

Daniel smiled sadly at this.

"I was recruited from Wisconsin," Alex said, after a sympathizing look towards Dude. "That's why I may have a strange accent to you. I was recommended for this program for my uncanny ability to repair anything foreign without so much as looking at it."

"How 'bout you Daniel?" John asked.

"Well, I've been interested in archeology all my life, so I majored in World Studies and Languages. I've been the world's leading linguist for a few years now…I guess that's why I was recruited. Many people were envious of the ease I picked up the languages so quickly…not many people can say they speak 50 human languages and now 2 alien dialects…

"How about you, Dagón?"

"Well, matey," said he, while putting a toothpick inside his mouth and propping his feet up on the table, "I come from another planet. It was called Jalnok, but it no longer exists as a free planet, sink me! It is now infested with the bilge of the Androidian race. I escaped through the Spacegate into another Androidian territory with a whole bunch of other Machiá, and we were all turned into slaves and thought we were to be measured fer our chains…That wa' over 110 years ago…" Dagón saw Daniel's shocked expression, and continued. "Yea, as fer me age, ya young'ns, I be close to 138 of yer years. Me symbiote keeps me alive and well fer much longer than I'm supposed ter live."

"Whoa," Daniel said. "138? That's gotta be a record or something."

"It is. But no one will know of it because those on Old Earth cannot know about us. This is your home, now, Daniel," John said as he reclined in his chair a bit more to get as comfortable as he could. "Any other questions?"

"Yes. What is that liquid- or water-type stuff that comes out of the Spacegate every time we connect with another 'Gate?"

John, looking like he had no idea what it was either, nodded towards Alex. Sighing at her CO, she turned back towards the others and began her explanation.

"The 'water' is what we call the '_shield_,' just like the ship GC-5, 6, and 7 are on. It isplasma and prevents anything from getting out of the Spacegate without reintegrating back into solid matter. You see, when solid matter enters the shield, its particles begin to move faster until it's almost to plasma velocity. Because they don't quite reach plasma, however, the particles are safe, and they follow a transparent 'river'—a rift in space—that's filled with the same plasma as the Spacegate, from one side to the other. The particles of matter travel at very, very high speeds until they reach the other side. The speeds are so tremendous that there isn't a word to describe how fast. We're still doing a lot of research on the Spacegate, but that's what we know so far."

Daniel nodded his head, understanding what she had said. John, however, looked lost.

"Okay! That was a _lovely_ explanation, Major," he said, then looked at Daniel with a disbelieving face. "You understood that?"

Daniel nodded. "Uh, yeah… I did."

"Wow. Okay…um, anyone else who did?"

The others ignored him, clearly annoyed that the Colonel still pretended he didn't get it even though he had had extensive explaining from all of them on that subject, and turned their attention back to Daniel.

"What powers the Spacegates?" the linguist asked.

John looked from Daniel to Alex again. "Your explanation again, Major. Go for it."

"All right, sir. We have a power grid in which the Spacegates are connected to. This power grid is connected to a small piece of the rarest substance in the galaxy: Faneocxil. It enhances explosions so much that it makes them unstoppable. It's also necessary for the detonation of Androidian-designed bombs, and that's why they're taking over planets with deposits of Faneocxil—just as the Goa'uld had done to planets that had Naquadah and Naquadria. This stuff is most different than anything I've ever seen. It's radioactive, yet doesn't harm humans. Its half-life is over several billion years and it can power just about anything. We just hook the Spacegate up to the small piece of that stuff and it can run almost forever."

"Whoa."

"Yeah," John agreed with a smile. "I still don't get it, either."

"No, it's not that," Daniel said back, a slight grin on his face. "It's just hard to imagine a new substance with that capability. It's mind-boggling!"

"Any other questions, dude?" Rick asked.

"Um, yeah. What about the old ship? What happened to the _Prometheus_? Hoffman said something that you found it here and that I could see it when the time was right."

John smiled. "I thought you'd never ask! That's where we're going to go, as missions have been slow lately—PV3-401 is the planet's name. Hoffman decided to give us some R & R and so has postponed the mission to P97-080. Let's gear up. We're leaving in half an hour!"

The team quickly went to their rooms to get what they needed, leaving their dirty dishes to their serving droid.


	20. Realization and Comparison

Chapter 19 – Realization & Comparison

"So that was the shield," Daniel said to Alex as he pointed to it with the barrel of his plasma rifle. It glowed slightly in the gloomy night sky. She looked back just as it disconnected from the _Karma_'s Spacegate, leaving GC-1 totally in the dark.

"Yep," she said. "Next time you're in the rift, look around. It's quite a sight, and quite the ride. Even after all this time, traveling between 'Gates has never left me without something to look at."

Smiling, he turned towards John. "Where is the ship?"

"Just over that ridge," the Colonel replied without looking over at him—he was looking at something in the distance. Daniel looked over. Just then, the sun rose over the crest and the whole world exploded in a view of reds, oranges, and golds. It was the most beautiful thing Daniel had ever seen since he had been reincarnated into The System.

"Whoa," Daniel said.

"Yeah. I always make Hoffman start missions here at this time. It never ceases to amaze me of the beauty of a single sunrise. That's the one bad thing about being on a ship all the time: you can't see any sunsets, or sunrises."

"Aye, ye can't…but fer the Christmas Ball an' New Year's Celebration, there be some mighty pretty ones. Daniel, ye need to see 'em…when ye've been deprived of 'em fer such a long time, they be the best things ye've ever seen." Dagón seemed to be enjoying it as much as everyone else.

"I can't wait," Daniel said, not sure what neither the Christmas Ball, nor the New Year's Celebration were. "What are they?"

"What? Sunrises?" John asked, clearly thinking they were still talking about the sun.

"No! The Christmas and New Years things."

"Oh! Well," said the Colonel as they trudged on to where the site was, "the Christmas Ball is held on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, though we usually only stay for the Christmas Eve one. It's, um, a _ball_. There's lots of dancing and eating and intoxicating drinks…"

"Oh, aye," Dagón interrupted. "Remember th' time where ye drank too much that ye passed out onto—"

"_Yes_, Dagón! I remember," John cut him off. "So does almost everyone else. Who wouldn't?" Smiling sheepishly, the man continued with what he had been talking about before.

"Anyway," John continued, "we stay there overnight in a bunch of hotel rooms, and we just take off for a day.

"As for the New Year's Celebration, we go back to Old Earth to watch the traditional fireworks at precisely the midnight hour and have another ball, though this time, masked. We party all through the night, though GC-6 and 7 usually stay back in The System because we need some people there at all times—they're all not partiers, anyway. They're too dedicated to their work to do much more than monitor and go after the Androidians. I always said they were too serious to know what fun was…"

"So every GC team has their own personal Spacegate?" Daniel interrupted, not wanting to hear the Colonel prattle on.

Alex nodded. "They do…we stole most of them from the Androidians. There are many of them, though all of the ones we possess have the same symbol of origin. Each one, however, has a different address, and that's why GC-3 doesn't travel to our 'Gate, or vice-versa. We have the most concentrated amount of Spacegates in the galaxy, probably the Universe. But, as we say, what the Androidians don't know can't hurt us."

"Whoa," Daniel muttered, saying the same thing he had been saying whenever he had taken in something particularly unexpected. He didn't even realize he said it before it was out. "We have seven Spacegates?"

Alexandra nodded again. "That is, unless you count the one back on Old Earth. We also came into possession of seven Stargates, which are also found in GC 'Gate Rooms. The President and others, who do not wish to have to stay in The System permanently, go through the Stargate back on Earth and end up in one of the seven here, though they cannot pass through the Spacegate after they arrive on-ship. They need to use the Stargates at all times in order to get to the other ships."

"How were the Stargates made?" Daniel asked, not familiar with that part of the legend.

"Dr. Daniel Jackson discovered how to use them, Daniel," John said. "He and Colonel Jack O'Neill went through to a planet, and after that, the government had made it a regular thing—having multiple four-man SG teams exploring new planets, meeting new people, making new alliances… After a while, however, they ran into the Goa'uld; a race, like the Androidians, who enslaved people and had higher-ranking 'gods.'"

"I'm familiar with that part," Daniel said, astounded that someone else knew of the supposed myth they had back on Old Earth. "Please continue!"

"Jackson and O'Neill were partnered up with astrophysicist Major Samantha Carter and a Goa'uld enslaved alien called Teal'c, who was of the Jaffa race. Together, they made SG-1, the leading team of the SGC and they defeated most of the Goa'uld…all except Nun—who had remained hidden and asleep for many years.

"Ever wonder how Old Earth digressed into the Dark Ages again, Daniel? Of course not…you knew the answer all along and were ridiculed for it: the Goa'uld. They started killing the most influential humans a few hundred years ago before the Androidians killed them all. The Androidians then took over the Goa'uld's place as enslavers of people and wanna-be rulers of the Universe. The SGC was closed down, as all of the team members had either been killed or taken captive, and the Stargates weren't used anymore. As they got older, the silver color the Stargates turned gold from oxidation and disuse, so that's how we distinguish them from the Spacegates, even though they have constellations as their dialing code and ours has ancient letters."

"I can't believe that that's what actually happened," Daniel said, shaking his head from left to right. "It's actually not a myth!" He knew right then he had made the right choice in coming here. However, he leaned over to the Major and whispered, "That didn't answer my initial question at all," causing her to giggle quietly.

Thinking back to what the Colonel had told him, he said, "You know…that seems uncannily familiar. I mean, we have a Colonel whose name resembles that of the previous one: Colonel Jack O'Neill—Colonel John O'Brien. Do you see it? There _is_ a similarity between them.

"We do have a Katherine, though she's not in the military, technically," Daniel continued. "Major Alexandra Croft—Major Samantha Carter? They have the same amount of syllables, and their last names begin with the same letter. And that Teal'c character seems like Dagón to me—enslaved by the alien race, turned good guy by the Colonel… What were the General and doctor's names?"

"Major General George Hammond and Doctor Janet Fraser," Alex said breathlessly.

"Major General George Hammond—Major General Joseph Hoffman. See the resemblance? Doctor Janet Fraser—Doctor Katherine Fields. The doctor's names aren't as symmetrical as the others, but their last names start with the same letter. If there was a picture of them still preserved, I'd bet that we all somewhat resemble them…at least a bit."

The rest of the team stared at him with disbelief. No one previously had put two and two together. They all stood there, dumbfounded, not believing what the linguist had told them.

"I mean, it makes sense," Daniel continued, not really noticing the looks of awe around him. "We could just be SG-1 reincarnated here to stop the other alien race from rising to power. I mean I have the same qualifications and first name as the one before me…Dr. Daniel Jackson—Dr. Daniel Matthewson. Hell, I mean we have almost the same name, for crying out loud! Isn't that enough evidence?

"If you need more, I have more. The leader for both teams is a Colonel. The only female on it is a Major. There was also a linguist on the team who was not military, and an alien, who just so happened to be enslaved by the bad guys. The head doctor is also a female and the man in charge of the entire thing is a Major General. This all makes sense. Am I right?"

Daniel then noticed everyone's expressions. "What'd I say?"

"We need to get back to the Spacegate…_now_!" John ordered and they all left at a run.

"What's happening?" Daniel yelled as they all ran as fast as their legs would carry them back the way they had come. "What did I say?"

"There's a prophecy, Daniel, of the Preserver coming and linking the forgotten past with the present," Alex puffed as they slowed down a bit to compensate for their talking. "And, from the looks of things, you've just done that. Daniel, we all believed that you were special, that you were different from all of us because of your jewel…that you were the Preserver. The musing you did over there just now…well, that just confirmed it. We're taking you home to tell Hoffman what had just happened."

"Oh, great," Daniel muttered, and poured on the juice, running right through the shield of the Spacegate, just as the others had done.

* * *

"What is it?" General Hoffman asked as GC-1 ran down the ramp of the Spacegate on the _Karma_.

"It's Daniel, sir," the Colonel said. Hoffman turned towards the linguist. "Well, actually, sir," John amended, "he doesn't really know what happened. He fulfilled a part of the prophecy of The Preserver—he linked the forgotten past with the present…"

Hoffman, without another word, led Daniel to his chambers, with the others following right behind him, and commanded him to repeat what he had said. After the linguist had finished, the General sat there, pensive and quiet. The rest of GC-1 stood silent behind the linguist, thinking about it, as well.

Finally, Hoffman spoke.

"Well, Daniel, there is actually a picture that has survived the Dark Ages, and we just happen to have it here in storage. I completely forgot about it. You may have a look, if you wish. Be sure to bring it back to me so that I may look on it. If you all want to go with the linguist, be my guest. Report back when you have found it."

"Yes, sir!" they all called, and the Colonel led the way to the storage room for GC-1.

They sifted through old uniforms, old tools and such until they finally found it. Preserved in a transparent case, it looked as if it had been on display or something before being put into storage. Coming out of the room and into better light, the crew looked down at the picture and gasped.

The picture, though hundreds of years old, seemed as if they were looking back at themselves. They looked almost identical to the team that had fought against, and lost, the Goa'uld. They rushed to show the General.

"General!" Daniel yelled as GC-1 pounded down the hallway. "We found it! You've _gotta_ see this!"

"What in—?" the General began as the linguist carefully laid the picture, perfectly preserved, onto Hoffman's desk. Staring back at him were the team members of SG-1, the SGC's most trusted team. But, instead of seeing a whole different team of people he didn't know, the General saw his own team, GC-1, staring back at him.

"Well, I'll be damned," Joseph said as he looked up from the picture and saw that everyone in the room, including Dr. Fields—who had come in to see what all the excitement was about—were standing exactly how their counterparts were standing in the picture.

Looking from one face to the other, the General could see slight differences: Alexandra's eye and hair color, Daniel's bluer eyes, John's slightly more muscular body, Dagón's longer hair and moustache, and the doctor's eyes and hair style. Looking at the other General, Hoffman saw that the other one was slightly heavier than he, with blue eyes instead of green, darker hair, and a light complexion compared to Hoffman's chocolate-brown skin. Other than that, GC-1 before him was almost identical to its past equivalent, SG-1.

"Daniel," the General said in awe, "you were right…we all do look almost identical to SG-1. My God, this is something to really think about!"

Daniel smiled and was going to say something to them all, but the sound of a siren pulled them back to the business at hand.

"GC-1, you're to go to planet P97-080and check out what Androidian activity you can find," the General said grimly, clearly bummed about not getting to talk to his team further about the discovery. "Be careful. I've heard that the god there is hidden in an almost human-like form…he could be anyone. You leave in ten minutes. Oh! And Damian has requested to go with you. You are to take him."

"Yes, sir, General, sir," Colonel O'Brien said, mad at about taking Damian with them. "You heard the General, kids. Let's get geared up and ready to go!"

The team scrambled to do as their COs ordered.


	21. Capture

Chapter 20 – Capture

Exiting the shield of the Spacegate, the crew was face-to-face with a world full of lush vegetation. Daniel was taken aback. So far, the two other worlds he had seen had been barren and almost hazardous to live there for long periods. This place looked just like the rainforests back on Old Earth.

"It's beautiful," Daniel heard Alex breathe next to him as they walked down the moss-covered, cracked stone steps that led down from the Spacegate.

"It is," John agreed as he took off and put on his olive green baseball cap again. "But there're trees. When ya think you're not on Earth again…well, you actually kinda are!"

"I thought all planets that contained a Stargate were barren with no inhabitants," Daniel said, voicing his confusion for the first time. "I guess I was wrong."

"Yeah. Most of the planets, well, okay…_all_ of the planets that actually have a Spacegate had one type of sentient life form or another before they either killed themselves or were killed. Most of the planets, though, still have life on them…no matter how primitive or advanced they are. According to our sensors here—and because of Dude's wonderful hacking skills—we've determined that this planet does indeed have life, not much more advanced than ours." John seemed to be enjoying his lecture when Alex shouted something and veered off towards their right at a flat-out run.

"Hey! You! Stop!" Alexandra yelled as she ran. The man, whom she had seen, looked up at her, startled to see her there. His already poised knife above his heart hovered there, hesitating because of this new stranger. That hesitation was enough. Alex kicked the knife out of the man's reach, and helped him up.

"What were you thinking?" she demanded, not noticing how the man stared at her with open mouth and lusting eyes. "Why were you trying to kill yourself?"

Before he could answer, the rest of GC-1 crashed through the foliage and stood next to the Major.

"Uh, my name is Daniel Matthewson," the linguist said, indicating himself, "and these are Colonel O'Brien, Dagón, Major Croft, and Lieutenant Woods. What's your name?"

The man looked at each one in turn, though his eyes always turned back to Alex.

"Solaris," the man replied with a slight shudder. No one but Daniel saw that. "My name is Solaris." The man then, smiling at his rescuer, took her hand and began to lead them somewhere, beaming all the way.

They walked into the morning.

"Where are you taking us?" John asked of the man as they came to a marvelous city.

"To my home," Solaris said, talking to them for the first time on the whole trip. "This woman saved and helped me think twice about committing suicide. She will be given a special place in my house."

"But what about us?" the Colonel asked.

"You will stay here," the man said. "I'm only interested in the woman."

"Hey…" Daniel said, stepping forwards. "We're a team. If she's going, we all go."

The man shrugged. "Have it your way, though you'll be in a jail cell while she is dancing the night away in my arms. Follow me, my love."

They all went with the man, though Damian disappeared the minute they turned their backs on him. Alex struggled to get out of the grip of this deranged man. The man held fast, however, and the only thing she could do was follow him.

* * *

As they walked into the city, everyone greeted Solaris by bowing or curtsying respectfully. He would acknowledge them by a curt not of his head. He never once slowed down. Just as they stopped to wait for the road to clear, however, John lashed forward, catching the man off guard.

"Let her go!" he yelled, and the two men commenced to fight. Dagón and Daniel both got Alex away from the men, and had just gone to get their Colonel to stop from fighting when they were all surrounded by what looked like palace guards.

"Let the Prince go!" one of them yelled, and the heavily armed men roughly separated John from Solaris. The largest one, clearly the leader, hit the side of the Colonel's head with a blow that knocked him unconscious. Daniel and Dagón were separated then from Alex, and had their hands bound behind their backs. They began their march once more.

After an hour of walking—or, in John's case, being carried—they came to the biggest building in the entire city. It looked to be a palace, and a very lavishly decorated one at that. Once inside, however, the three men were separated from Alex and led downward underground, into a sort of prison.

There were prisoners crammed into every single cell they passed, all of them reaching out through the bars, demanding food, to be let out, or anything they could get from the guard. All the guards did was fire a blasting-weapon at one of them, instantly killing him, and all the prisoners went silent. Dagón, Daniel, and a stirring John were led even farther into the prison into a secluded cell all their own.

"Thanks for the escort!" Colonel O'Brien shouted after the departing guards. "Hey! How do we get in touch with room service?" The guards kept walking to their next duty. Clutching his head, John moaned for the first time after his injury, then resorted back to humor to ease his pain. "They sure were nice, weren't they? I mean, for carrying me all the way here—wherever here is—they deserve a raise. I say we should go and talk to their employer." He moaned again, and lied back on the one large bed he had been thrown onto.

Daniel looked over at John. "Are you okay?"

"Ah, yes…yes. I've had worse. It's not broken…not like that one time. I'll live."

"Like what time? Now that we have a lot of time together, do you feel like sharing a story or two?"

"Unh," the Colonel groaned, but launched himself into a story; mostly to forget the pain of the splitting migraine he was experiencing at the moment. "A while back, before even Dude had joined the GC Teams, Dagón and I were off on a mission, and it went badly…didn't it, Dagón?"

"Aye," the old Machiá pirate said with a scowl. "I remember it well."

"As do I, my friend," the Colonel said, and then started telling his story to Daniel.


	22. Flirting with Evil

Chapter 21 – Flirting with Evil

Alex found herself in an elaborately decorated sitting room with every type of luxury imaginable in it. She also had a maid attending her, who was insisting that she get changed from her dusty military uniform to something more 'comfortable,' which turned out to be a dress.

"Ma'am, Solaris insists that you wear the formal dresses of the court," the maid kept saying. "Pants are for the sirs, if you get my meanin'."

Eventually, the Major relented and allowed the maid to garb her in a dress—one that made her look somewhat more curvy than she was used to, and one that showed off way more than what she was used to, as well.

"Don't you have any other dresses that I can wear?" Alex asked repeatedly, as she looked into the huge mirror in her room. "One that doesn't show off as much skin as this?" she muttered while looking at the dress again.

It really was beautiful. Floor length and elegant, the red and gold dress accentuated her flaming hair, though the bell-shaped bottom half was all she liked. The top was a different matter. With long bell-sleeves and decorative elbow cuffs, the whole thing made her feel like a princess, but the neckline was a whole other story. It had a boat-neck cut and was very pretty, although it took a severe plunge, showing off a bit more skin than what she really wanted revealed. It didn't look bad at all—she was just uncomfortable about wearing it. Making a face, she tried to pull the material up farther, but was met with defeat. She hoped that she didn't need to bend forwards in front of Solaris or anyone else.

The next step in her tedious dressing was styling her hair, which her maid did by pulling it back and making it stay there with what looked to be a huge ruby and gold hairpin. It really looked nice—better than the other times she put her hair up, but Alex didn't like the circumstances in which she was dressed up so nicely.

After checking to see if all her work was good, the maid gestured for Alex to follow her—she was to go to a dinner with Solaris and the king of the castle. She was hoping to make a good impression so she could get herself, and her friends, off of this planet. But, if she couldn't right away, Alex was determined to find out all she could about the supposed Androidian god who was supposed to be there.

Alexandra soon found herself in the most beautiful dining room she had ever seen in her life. It had an ornately painted, vaulted ceiling, and had tapestries hung everywhere. In the center of the entire room, there was a smallish table, where three places were set: one at each end, and one on one side. Alex didn't have the slightest clue as to where to sit. She didn't need to, however.

Just as she went into the room, Solaris entered from another door, and walked over to her, his face alight with a smile. Alex could now see him in full for the first time.

He was tall with gleaming brown eyes and dark blonde hair. His features were boyish, but he had the charm of a twenty-five-year-old suitor. His skin was tinged with gold, and he walked with a sure-footed gait. He was garbed in ceremonial robes, which was a gold set of pants and long-sleeved shirt, and a red tunic-like garment with a high neck and lots of gold embroidery. He also wore black boots and his hair was spiked every-which-way. He was pretty handsome, Alex thought, but there was something about him that she instantly didn't like.

"My, how lovely you look!" he exclaimed as he took her hand and led her to the table, pulling out a chair near the head of the table for her to sit at. "The others are coming soon," he assured her, and walked around to the other side, sitting directly across from her.

"Please tell me why I am here," she said, wanting to know his intentions exactly.

"This is a feast in your honor, my love. It was you who saved me from certain death, and because of that, everyone's eternally grateful."

"All right," she allowed, "but what about my friends? What happened to them?"

Solaris looked at her with a grim face. "They are in the dungeons. They attacked me, and so need to pay the price. Their execution date is scheduled for sometime during the next week."

"_Execution?_ Are you serious? Why? They're on Death Row because my Commanding Officer didn't like you dragging me? Where's the justice there?"

"I'm afraid I didn't tell my father everything. I know your—what was it?—_Commanding Officer_ wasn't fully guilty…but you must see that if they are allowed to leave, then you need to go, as well…and I don't want that to happen."

"But—" Alex began, but was cut off by the blaring of horns and the pounding of drums. Solaris jumped to his feet, Alex following his example. The huge doors of the chamber burst open.

"Announcing His Majesty, Pollux, King of all Olympus!" a herald yelled and a very old man strode into the room.

The king was tall, but stooped in his old age, with a closely trimmed beard and cascades of long white hair. He wore ceremonial robes, just as his son did, though they were in brilliant orange and gold. He also wore a small golden crown, pocked with orange stones. His dark brown eyes were serious, but he smiled when he saw Alex and his son.

"Welcome! Welcome!" he exclaimed as he embraced his son, then Alex. "My son says that you saved him from death. That is a cause for celebration! What is your name, miss?"

Alex smiled as she said, "Major Alexandra Croft, milord. You may call me Alex, if it please you."

Pollux smiled and took her hand. "Thank you, Alex, milady. Now, let us all feast!"

The three sat down, and the food began to be served.

"Milady," the king began as he helped himself to some roasted meat Alex didn't know, "where are you from?"

"I uh, um… My friends and I are from the planet Tierra." She didn't know whether it was a good idea telling him where she originated from, but since Tierra didn't have a Spacegate that they knew of, she thought that it was okay to do so.

"So you are not of this world?" King Pollux seemed shocked. "What god rules it?"

Alex knew this was a trick question, but answered anyway. "Um, none, milord. We are a race of people who fight against the Androidians." As she said that, she glanced at Solaris, and was taken aback at the weird expression on his face, but what it meant, Alex did not know.

"Ah. And so we are, as well!" The king took a long drink from his cup, and made a face. "I think this wine is a bit off," he said, and suddenly fell over onto his plate.

"Father!" Solaris yelled, rushing to get up and over to his father. He pushed the king back against the chair and felt for a pulse. There was none. Pollux was dead, and Solaris had just risen to the throne.

The man looked over at Alex with a pale face, but she could sense deep within him a feeling of triumph—she suspected he had done it.

"Is he—?"

Solaris nodded, and Alex's suspicions were confirmed. Alex's hands came up to her mouth and tears sprung to her eyes. The man had been so kind to her, even when she was a stranger…and now that they were getting to know each other, he was dead.

Solaris pulled her into an embrace, Alex powerless because of her emotions to stop him. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and held her close, trying to reassure her that he had been very old and his time had come.

"I'm sorry you had to see it, Alex…but his time was up," Solaris said as he eased away from her. "He was the one who ordered the execution of your friends. Now that I'm king, they will be turned free, even _if_ your Commanding Officer—John O'Brien, was it?—tried to attack me."

"Solaris, you must understand…what you did to me back there would've been considered wrong on our planet. He was just obeying the customs we are used to. He thought that you meant me harm."

The new king held Alex's arms in his hands and brought her closer to him. Looking down, he said, "If I let them go, though, Alex…I…well, I'll need to watch you go, too.

"There was a story my mother used to read to me when I was really little…it was about a young prince, who, by his foolishness, was going to attempt suicide to escape the hardships of life. But then, a young maiden stopped him from doing just that, and they lived happily ever after together. I held onto that dream for twenty-some years now, thinking that it would come true. But, this morning, I gave up…and wandered into the woods to end my life—because a life without hope isn't a life at all.

"And then you came. It was almost like I imagined it. Can't you see? You're my destiny, Alexandra."

"Whoa…ah, what?"

"I believe that it was fate that has brought us together. We were made for each other."

"Whoa…" she said again. "Okay, but about that destiny thing again? Why?"

Solaris looked at her simply. "You fulfilled the story. You're the one whom I am destined to spend the rest of my life with."

"Ah," she said, and Solaris leaned down, kissing her to emphasize his need for her. Alex couldn't do a thing to get out of it.


	23. Going Home on Condition

Chapter 22 – Going Home on Condition

"We were asked to go see the activities of the Androidian goddess Artemis, much like this," the Colonel began while lying on the bed in their jail cell. "Things didn't go as planned, and we needed to stay off-ship on that planet for a week more than planned. We were almost caught by the Androidians many times, but right when our luck at outrunning them seemed to be taking a turn for the better, I slipped down the face of a steep cliff into a shallow ravine with a river flowing through it. It swept me along with the currents and I cracked my head on a rock somewhere. Dagón found me later."

"Aye that I did," Dagón said. "He be so wounded from the fall, I needed ta carry him to th' Spacegate—some couple hundred of yer feet away. He be bleeding profusely from hi' head and leg…I went as fast as me legs could carry me. We made it in time so he di'n't need any special care from the doc."

"Not that I would've minded that…" the Colonel interjected, and then realized he said it. He sat up suddenly with an alarmed face, but Daniel only smiled. Dagón looked confused.

"Your secret, however apparent it is to both Alex and I, is safe with us," Daniel assured John.

"Who—how—wha…what? How did you—?" the Colonel sputtered. _"How?" _Daniel's smile broadened.

"It shows, sir," the linguist explained. "And now, by the way you both look at the other when it's only the team and you two in a room, I'd say that she's began to return the feelings…"

John's face just fell into astonishment and Daniel began laughing. Dagón still had a clueless expression on his face.

"I don't understan' ye," the alien said while shaking his head, and the two men started laughing harder.

"Nothing to worry about Dagón…just petty human emotions, that's all. It wouldn't interest you."

Dagón smiled. "Aye…that it won't."

They then began to talk of other things, namely where Alex was and how she was doing. They hoped she would get them out of this predicament soon.

* * *

Solaris reluctantly broke the kiss, much to Alex's relief. He knew now in the bottom of his soul that this woman was the one for him.

"Will you stay with me?" he asked her, expecting her to leap for joy and accept. His fantasy, however, quickly ended with her reply.

"Solaris, my planet needs me, my friends need me. I cannot stay here. We are at war with the Androidians, and we need to go back home. Please…I ask you to let them go." Solaris didn't seem swayed, so she added reluctantly, "If you do, I promise to stay here and get to know you for as long as I can." That seemed to get his attention.

"If I let your friends go and allow them to use the Spacegate to get home, you'll stay with me?" Alex nodded. "All right. Your friends are as free as the birds are in the sky. You may go to them if you wish. Guard! Take her to the prisoners' cell!"

"Yes, milord," one of the guards called and he took her to see her friends.

* * *

"Alex!" Daniel called from the secluded small cell they were in.

"Hey, Major. You sure look as if you're holding up," the Colonel said. "How's our escape coming?"

"Well sir," she said, trying to hide the low neckline of her dress, "you're all free to go."

"Yes!" John cried and the guard opened the door. "All right. Let's get the king to let us go back home!"

"Uh, sir? There have been a lot of things that have happened over the past day. The king is dead, leaving Solaris to be the new one…and I've made a promise. The only way I could get you out was to agree that I'd stay and live here for a while to get to know the king. He seems to think that I'm his _destiny_ or something remotely along those lines, and so wouldn't have agreed to let you all go without me staying here."

"But you can't—!" Daniel protested, his heart sinking at the prospect, but the Colonel just sighed, cutting him off.

"Do what you have to do, Major. We'll come back for you in a week, if that's enough time. Just be careful! You don't know him that well!"

Alex nodded. "Yes, sir. Follow the guard. He'll take us back to the surface."

The Colonel nodded and they commenced to walk in two lines upwards. Alex hung towards the back with Daniel.

"Can you sense something wrong with Solaris?" she asked him as they walked. She could see he was eyeing her dress with the slightest laugh on his face. After her question, however, that grin dropped.

"Yes," he said, a hint of care in his eyes. "I've felt it since we got here. If I were you, I'd stay very cautious when around him. There's something wrong about him, but I'm not sure what it is."

Alex sighed, and they reached the surface.

From the castle, they began to walk to the location of the Spacegate when all of a sudden Damian's frantic screeches made them stop. He was being pursued by a huge-looking guard with a spear and looked to be absolutely terrified of the other man. All of a sudden, the man gained on Damian and skewered him through his stomach with a sword, twirled him around over his head, and then tossed him to the ground like a rag doll.

"Ouch," the Colonel said while making a face as the guard walked over to where they were.

"What was the meaning of that, Korpa?" Solaris asked.

The big man bowed to the king before replying, "We were off-duty and playing cards when he came. He wanted to play…said he had lots of credits and a girl we might be interested in, so we gave him some cards and let him play with us. Well, after a while, he won everything we had…but then he began to lose. In fact, he lost so badly he was over a million credits into debt. By that time, he started to run, and so I chased after him. The penalty for being in debt so much and not being able to pay it is death, and so I have doled it out rightfully."

The king nodded. "That is all right, Korpas. Go back to your station now."

"Yes, milord," the guard replied and left.

The five began to move again and they reached the Spacegate a few minutes later.

"Dial home, Daniel," the Colonel ordered once they were by the 'Gate, and walked over to the king. "Your hospitality is the best we've ever encountered," he said sarcastically. "I mean, guards hitting you over the head, locking you up without the slightest clue as to what you did wrong…I mean the list goes on and on. You should really think about going into the hotel business…" Solaris gave the Colonel a dirty look.

The Spacegate established a connection, and the aqua shield formed.

"G'bye milady," Dagón called to Alex and disappeared through the shield.

"Stay safe," Daniel said with a slight nod and smile, and he, too, left.

"No horseplay," her CO said, a slight devilish grin on his face. He then turned to talk to Solaris. "We'll pick her up sometime next week. We want her in one piece, please, and not harmed in anyway…Take care!" he said and started to walk through, when he turned around again. "Oh, and by the way…thanks so much for killing Damian. He was a very big nuisance to us all…" and with that, he was gone.

The Spacegate's connection cut off, and Alex was alone on a world she didn't want to be, with a man she didn't want to be with. It would be a most grueling week for her.

* * *

"Where're Major Croft and Lieutenant Woods?" Hoffman asked as Daniel, Dagón, and John walked down the ramp of the Spacegate on the _Karma_.

"Well, you know how things go, General, sir. Woods' _dead_," O'Brien said as he took his hat off, "Dagón had to endure some human emotion, Daniel learned a very big secret, I was knocked unconscious, and Croft had to promise to stay on the planet with King Solaris in order to get us out of a prison—you know…the usual."

"You didn't leave her with a mode of communications so she can call us if something goes wrong?" The General looked confused.

"Um, no. That somewhat slipped my mind. Our things were mostly taken, however, when we went to prison, so I wouldn't have had one to give her anyway, sir. We said that we'd come back to get her in a week."

The General nodded. "Go get cleaned up. We debrief in an hour."

"Yes, sir," the three said and gratefully went to their rooms.

* * *

Alex turned back towards Solaris. He was grinning at her with an expression she knew she didn't like.

"What?" she asked.

"Now I have you here with me alone," he said simply. "Do you want to come and see my bedroom?"

Alex looked at him, shocked and disgusted with his behavior, and what he was hinting at they do. "Excuse me? No, not really."

"Ah, then you might want to see outside. Come! I shall show you around the palace!"

Solaris led her outside to the same woods GC-1 had encountered the man in.

"Isn't it wonderful?" he asked her, while pointing to a trunk of what looked to be an oak. "We call these trees. Have you ever seen anything like them?"

Alexandra looked at him. The sudden change in mood brought her to her senses. Not thinking, though, she said, "I have. That is what we also call them, trees. They are beautiful, though." The woman reached out a hand and touched a trunk. "It's been a very long time since I've seen one, let alone touched one before."

"And why is that?" Solaris asked, standing very close behind her, breathing softly on her neck.

"I'm usually in a ship," she said, careful at what she said. She knew the _SS Karma_ was still a secret from the Androidians, and if she told anyone, even someone she thought she could trust, the secret might leak out and the Androidians would be informed.

"And what is the name of this ship?" he asked, putting a hand around her waist, pulling her closer to him.

"The _Androidian Slayer_," she made up, and could see and feel him recoil from her. "I am sorry," she said. "Have I offended you?"

But Solaris smiled. "No, no. It's just that your ship's name isn't very nice. I've accepted that the Androidians aren't cruel monsters that others are led to believe. I think that they're superior beings to most races, and have graced those races with their presence and knowledge. Can't you see? The Androidians are helping those other races…not hurting them!"

Alex just shook her head. "I understand you think that way, but I've fought with many Machiá in my life and have seen one Androidian goddess—Artemis—die to know that they are not helping the other races…at least not from my viewpoint. They're infesting race after race and they do not care whether the Machiá or other hosts survive a fight—just so long as the Androidian gods are still alive and well and in power."

They began walking again. Solaris had become silent…too silent for Alex's comfort. At last, he spoke again.

"My, how the sunset is lovely," he whispered as they crested a hill, coming to the edge of a cliff. Down below them and across a body of water, the sun sank blood red, orange, magenta, and gold beneath the horizon. Alex couldn't help but smile at it.

"Yes, it is. I haven't seen a sunset in the longest time, either. I've forgotten how each one is different, though all are beautiful. You truly are lucky to be living on a planet."

He took her hand and began to lead her home. "I've always wanted to travel amongst the stars," he said. "I've heard that all the other planets are different, yet all beautiful—just like sunsets. I've also heard of these gigantic clouds out there, with all the colors of the rainbow…is that true?"

Alex nodded. "Yes. They're called nebulae. They really are pretty, but I see enough of them to not be as fascinated with them that often. I think sunsets and sunrises are prettier because you don't have to leave your planet in order to see one."

Solaris smiled as they walked into the palace. It had been an interesting evening, and he was now going to show her to her room.

"I bid thee goodnight, fair Alexandra," he said while kissing her hand. "I await to converse with you more on these matters tomorrow. Sweet dreams."

He closed the door, and Alex was left alone in a strange world to fall into troubled slumber.


	24. Visions and Instinct

Chapter 23 – Visions and Instinct

Daniel paced the floor in the Dialing Room, glancing every now and then at the Spacegate. He had been doing that every day since GC-1 returned to the SGB.

"You know…you're going to wear a hole in the floor, Daniel," John said, "and I don't want to be the one who fixes it. We're not going on another mission anytime soon, and Alex's not due back for another three days."

"Yes, I know…but there's really nothing else I could be doing right now. I guess you could say that I'm bored," Daniel lied. The truth of the matter was that he was nervous and worried about Alex being alone on a foreign planet with a strange alien the linguist didn't feel at ease with. Lately, after working with her closely when the Colonel had been impaled, Daniel got a very strange, yet pleasant feeling throughout his body every time she was near. He didn't know what was causing it, but leaving her there on that planet was one of the hardest things he had ever done.

"Well, aren't you in luck!" the Colonel said, putting a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "It's already close to midnight. Go get some sleep. We all should, even if we aren't doing much tomorrow. I say to you all: good night!" The Colonel walked out of the room, but did not turn down the corridor that led to the dormitories. Instead, he had turned to go to the medical bay, and only Daniel noticed.

"Aye, mates…it be time for me Monileek. I—"

"Monileek?" Daniel had never heard this term before.

"Ah, yea. I forgot that ye di'n't know. Every Machiá with an Androidian larva do not sleep at all. Instead, they must go into themselves in the deepest kind of meditation the body allows."

"Ah! Yes! Monileek means _deep rest_ or _meditation_ in Machiá, doesn't it?"

"Aye, that it does. Overnight, we Machiáns must stay in Monileek, as our symbiotes repair and make us better. Ever' three days I need do this, or become very sick. I must go, or risk it. G'night, me hearties!"

"Good night, Dagón," Daniel said.

"Sweet sleep, dude!" Rick called after the alien, and the two remaining men shook hands.

"See you in the morning, Dude," Daniel said.

"Yeah, totally! Likewise."

The two headed down the hall to their sleeping quarters.

Daniel walked into his room, remembering for some reason the days that both he and Alex worked around the clock to save the Colonel. He had enjoyed them thoroughly, and knew he could count on her and talk to her whenever he needed to get something off of his shoulders. Pulling his uniform off and slipping into silky, black sleeping pants, Daniel put his glasses on his nightstand, turned the light off, and fell asleep.

* * *

"_Get away from her!"_ Daniel sat bolt upright in his bed, panting and sweating. He knew he had just had a nightmare, but to him it had felt so real. Rubbing a hand over his sweating forehead, and then running both of them down his bare arms, he lay back down again, and pictured once more what he had just dreamt about.

It had seemed so real. Alex stood before him, smiling the way she had at him when they had stopped the bomb and were one final step away from getting the Colonel free from the grips of the artifact. Then, however, Solaris came into view from a sort of fog and Alex began to writhe in agony and fear.

"No! Get away!" she screamed again and again, but Solaris, with a psychotic, evil grin, kept advancing on her, reaching out to places Daniel knew he wouldn't let Alex be touched. "Help!" she screamed again, but no one came.

"Oh," Daniel moaned as he opened his eyes again. The darkness around him didn't feel right to him, and he wondered if he needed to go tell Hoffman about his dream. "I will later in the morning," he muttered to himself and turned over again, hoping to fall asleep as soon as he could.

Daniel fell into a troubled sleep an hour later, yet the dream he had had before was back again, and even more vivid than ever. What led up to the point he had woken up to before was all so clear, though it began to get fuzzy right when Solaris was advancing on Alex. He woke up again, and headed straight for the General's quarters.

Pounding on the door, Daniel became face to face with a very bleary-eyed and annoyed Hoffman.

"What is it, man? It's three in the morning!" the General asked, annoyed at this interruption of sleep.

"I just had a vision, sir. Alex is in pain!"

Hoffman looked at Daniel suspiciously. "Are you sure it's not a dream?" he asked.

"No, sir. I had it twice in a row. You said that I'd get foresight. Could this be it?" Daniel desperately wanted to know.

Hoffman shook his head. "Son, you've only been here for around two months. Usually, the most complicated of your powers comes within half a year since being reincarnated into The System. I think it was just a bad dream…go back to bed."

The linguist was disappointed. "Yes, sir," he said, and reluctantly went back to his room as the General slammed his door shut.

Daniel sat on his bed in the dark, afraid to go back to sleep because he knew he would have that dream again. But, against his will, his eyelids became heavy, and he had no choice but to obey. He drifted to sleep again.

"_Stop!"_ Daniel yelled a while later, thrashing out wildly, and landing on the floor. He looked around, relieved to see he was in his room, and had the comforts of home around him. Getting shakily to his feet, he looked at the clock—it was 4:05 in the morning. Rubbing his eyes, he sought to get dressed. No one would be up this early, so therefore no one could stop him from his plan: he was going back to P97-080 with or without the General's consent, and there was really nothing they could do to stop him.

* * *

"_Alert! Alert! Unauthorized 'Gate activation!"_ the female computerized voice said over the blaring klaxons and flashing red lights. All of GC-1 ran to the Dialing Room just in time to see Daniel glance up at them and walk up the ramp, disappearing through the shield, and letting the connection cut off behind him.

"Where did he go?" the General demanded.

"Back to P97-080, man," Dude said as he read off the dialing logs. "Why'd he go?"

"He had a dream," Hoffman said, and the rest of GC-1 just stared at him. "You two," the General said after a moment's hesitation, pointing at Dagón and Colonel O'Brien, "you have a go. I want you out there to bring our boy home. He's facing severe punishments… I want him back in one piece, though. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," John and Dagón both said, and went rushing to get ready for departure.

* * *

Daniel found himself back in the world they had left five days earlier without Alex. Closing his eyes, the man concentrated, letting his mind's eye wander around quickly, looking for Alex. After searching several places by thinking, he finally located the Major. By concentrating harder, Daniel began to see her surroundings through the walls and then finally her.

Seeing her in his mind, however, made him enraged, his eyes snapping open, and his body starting to run. Through his mind, he had been able see her clearly and where she was. In a brightly lit, though very small room she was bloodied, mostly unconscious, and chained to a wall, barely alive. Daniel knew the longer he took to get to her, the closer to death she'd become.

Suddenly paying attention to his environment, Daniel saw that he was rocketing down the steps that led to the back entrance of the dungeons. Barely noticing the two guards he quickly knocked out, he walked down more steps, heading right towards a door at the end of the hall.

From the room came sounds of Alex struggling; then, "No! Get away!" Alex's cries were exactly how they had been in Daniel's dream. Looking in through the barred window, Daniel wanted to know quickly what he was up against, so he knew how to fight…and win. The sight before his eyes sickened him.

While he had run to get her, Alex had been taken from her chains on the wall and forced to lie down on a torture table in the middle of the cramped room. Solaris, mostly undressed, was pulling Alex's tattered skirt up her obviously broken legs, stroking them as he went ever upwards. Alex was terrified, straining against her bonds as hard as she could as she tried to heal the damage. Solaris, seeing that, kept blasting her with energy so that healing them would be impossible by herself. He then got up onto the table and straddled the woman's knees, relishing the control he had over her.

As his hands encircled her neck, Solaris began to laugh.

"Now you shall see the wrath of an Androidian _god_!" he jeered at the struggling woman beneath him. "All of your talk about killing Artemis and Machiá warriors… Ha! Your precious team isn't here now, are they? And they cannot stop me from taking from you something you highly prize."

In that moment, Solaris dropped the human mask he had kept on, and Daniel, let alone Alex, saw him for the first time what he actually was. Wearing a green toga-like garment, the man had shaggy brown hair and piercing grey-blue eyes. He seemed ancient, and also somewhat artificial. He also felt strange to Daniel, and he knew that what he had sensed before was in fact an Androidian god.

"Now you will have the pleasure and honor to be with the _greatest_ of the Androidian gods," he announced as his eyes flashed a red color, another indication that he was an Androidian. "Worship your god, Zeus!" As he finished that, he reached a hand down to the neckline of her dress and yanked, tearing the fabric and exposing her shoulder, though nothing more than that; he then began to take the rest of what he had been wearing off, intent on coupling with Alex for her ignorance to the Androidian race.

Daniel couldn't take it anymore. Not thinking anything other than how to destroy the Androidian and save Alex, he burst into the room.

"No! _Alex!_ Get away from her, you bastard!" he bellowed, launching himself at the King, grabbing a Sartgun from his belt in the process.

Zeus leapt off the table he and Alex were on and stood at a ready stance, his eyes towards the sky, as if he was calling on some other more powerful being to help him, his arms held out to his sides. Daniel charged at the other man, and both of them clashed together. The fight for the woman on the torture table had begun!

The room was ablaze with lightning bolts as they erupted from Zeus's fingers, making the air alive with electricity. Dodging them became the linguist's first priority, as he knew one hit from them would fry his attempts at saving Alex, let alone his insides.

"You will pay for your insolence!" the alien shouted as his eyes glowed once more, sending a lightning bolt at Daniel, which shallowly grazed the man's arm.

"No, it is you who shall suffer! I am the Preserver. Fear my wrath!" Daniel shouted in pain and rage, not thinking clearly at what he was saying. He had a burn mark, but his arm was still working. The man retaliated by shooting his Sartgun at the alien, hitting him. The battle continued.

Both men got in some shots against the other, but Daniel was the one who finished the fight. Right as Zeus was about to summon another lightning bolt, the linguist dodged around to the alien's back and shot him for the fifth time with his Sartgun. It killed the Androidian instantly, and Zeus just stood there for a moment. Daniel learned that the standard three hits weren't enough for an Androidian god. The false god fell to the floor.

"Daniel?" Alex said weakly, her energy draining from her.

"I'm here," he said gently, ripping her bonds from the table and scooping her up. "I'm taking you home. Don't worry."

Hugging her to him as she struggled to wrap her arms around his neck, he left the palace to find himself in the middle of a cheering group of people. One man came forward.

"My name is Flahari," the man said. "You must come back sometime soon, for you will be considered heroes on Olympus. You killed the Androidian god Zeus…a feat no man has dared do."

Daniel smiled, despite his confusion. "We'll come back to check on you all. I've got to get her home, though. I need to get to the Spacegate!"

"Let him pass!" Flahari shouted and a path was formed straight to the Spacegate. Daniel ran there and punched in the dialing code for home. As the shield swirled outward, he looked down at Alex. She looked terrible, but also grateful as she gazed back at him. Smiling slightly, he stepped through the Spacegate, and found himself face-to-face with the rest of GC-1 on the other side.

"Sir! He's back!" John called as Daniel carried Alex down the ramp.

"We need a medical team in the 'Gate Room ASAP, dudes!" Dude cried from the Dialing Room. "Major Croft is severely injured!"

"No! Cancel that!" Daniel cried as he walked down the ramp. "I'll take her. I've got a couple of burns that need attention, anyway." Daniel started running down the corridors to the medical bay, making everyone worry and wonder about what had happened to them while Daniel had been alone on the planet with Alex.


	25. Comfort

Chapter 24 – Comfort 

Alex awoke to the rhythmic sound of the heart monitor connected to her heart, monitoring her heartbeat. The room was blurry, so she blinked a few times before it came into focus. Along the back wall stood everyone from GC-1, the team, the extra personnel…everyone. But the only one who came clearly into focus was Daniel, who looked to be nursing some wounds on his arms and chest.

"Sir?" she said weakly. "Daniel?"

"We're here, Major," Hoffman said while coming to the side of the bed. Colonel O'Brien was next to him, as was Dagón; and Daniel, Dude, and Kate crowded around on the other side. "How do you feel?"

"Okay," she said. "What happened?"

She caught Hoffman glancing over at Daniel before he motioned everyone else to vacate the room. "I think Daniel had better tell you in private," he said, and he, too, left the room. Alex looked up at Daniel.

"What happened?" she asked again, and Daniel sat down next to her bed, taking her hand in his.

"You don't remember?" he asked gently.

"I do," she whispered. "But I would like to know what you did."

"All right," Daniel said. "I'll start from the very beginning. Last night I fell asleep, only to wake up with a terrible nightmare. You were in it, and so was _Sol_—uh, Zeus. You were smiling, but when Zeus walked into the picture, you began yelling—like you did before I came in—and Zeus began to advance on you. Right then it became fuzzy, and I woke up, just thinking it had been a really bad dream. But then I had that same dream two more times in a row.

"I told Hoffman about it, but he just thought it had been a very bad dream, even though I had it more than once. The last time I woke up, I knew something needed to be done." He looked from their clasped hands to her face again, and saw an emotion shining in her eyes…one he didn't know for sure what it was. Smiling a bit, he continued.

"I knew what I was about to do was going to get me into a lot of trouble when I got back, but I did it anyway, acting on instinct—which you told me was a good thing. I set the Spacegate to take me back to '080 without anyone else. I disappeared before they could catch me, and ended up on the planet where you were. Concentrating, I could see where you were, and most importantly your situation. I knew you were chained up, I knew you were hurt badly, and that's when my body took over.

"It was the weirdest thing. I mean, I knew where to go, and my body just began to run in that direction; my mind blocked all else from it besides the fact that I needed to get to you."

He paused and looked back at her. She shifted position weakly on the hospital bed. "I have that same gift," she whispered. "It's that of intense focus—it's a curse, but it helps a whole lot with things. You only see the goal…you don't see anyone or anything in your way, you don't see any personal danger…only what you need to accomplish. It took you directly to me, didn't it?"

Daniel nodded. "I was so enraged at what Zeus was doing, I didn't see anything else but the path that took me to you. When I got to you, though, and saw what he was doing to you…well…I somewhat blanked out. I remember dodging lightning bolts and killing him, but everything else in between is all fuzzy."

"Well," Alex started weakly as she shifted position again so that she was looking directly at him, "from what I heard, you screamed at him to get away from me and then you began to fight with him. He began unleashing lightning and told you that you'd pay for your insolence. You shouted back, 'No, it is you who shall suffer! I am the Preserver. Fear my wrath!' Then, a while later, Zeus was killed and you came for me."

Daniel smiled sheepishly. "I said that?"

Alex nodded. "Yes, you did. From where I had been, I could see Zeus, but not you. When you told him that you were the Preserver, he seemed to get worried, and then you killed him. I think they have all heard of the Preserver legends."

"Yeah…everyone besides me," Daniel muttered, and Alexandra began laughing, though it quickly turned into a cough.

"Oh," she moaned, clutching at her stomach. "There must be some internal damage Kate hasn't gotten around to fixing yet," she said. "You see, Kate can heal anything and everything, yet when the body has too much damage, she can't use her powers to heal it all at once. She does it in increments; otherwise she'll pass out from exhaustion and will have to recover even more to finish the job later anyway."

"I hope you get better soon," he said truthfully while looking at her. Alex had a faraway look in her eyes, and Daniel thought she saw a glimmer of an emotion he didn't know. Seeing her in that state, he didn't want to ask what he wanted to ask of her but he knew he should. Sighing, he damned the question to hell and asked it anyway.

"Alex?" he asked after a moment's pause.

"Hmm?" She looked up at him and saw caring and sadness in his intense blue eyes, paired with a touch of grief.

"I'm sorry, but I need to know. The question has been gnawing at the pit of my stomach ever since we got back. Did he…uh, did Zeus…?"

"Rape me?" she supplied quietly, with a hint of grief in her voice.

All Daniel could do was nod, punishing himself for bringing it up so soon after she experienced it. "Yeah," he said, a pained look on his face. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

"But you have the right to know," the Major said, straining to keep control of her voice and failing. She looked up at him as she shook her head no, her tears spilling out. Daniel felt the pent-up breath he didn't realize he had been holding rush out in a sigh of relief, and he let go of Alex's hand.

"Come here," he said to her softly while he held his arms out to her. Sliding gratefully into them, she cried away the fear, the guilt, and the relief of being rescued in time before the Androidian raped her. Daniel sat there and held her, trying to comfort her.

_Major Croft was not raped! That's something to be grateful about,_ Daniel thought thankfully as he rocked slightly forwards and back, cradling Alex closely in his arms, offering what comfort he could for something she never should've gone through. Thinking of his dreams, Daniel knew that, being different, his most powerful ability had come to him before anyone else's usually had just for the purpose of keeping one of his teammates safe. The linguist stroked Alex's hair as he thought of what could've happened had he not had the dream.

"I'm sorry," Alex apologized a while later while she wiped her red, puffy eyes.

"No, don't apologize. What you went through…well, I can only begin to guess. You have more right to cry than I did to try to comfort you. I don't know what it felt like, and so therefore I ask your forgiveness for trying to make things all right, even when they weren't."

Alex looked at him with a pained face. "Even if you think you have no right to comfort me…well, it was working…"

Daniel gathered her into his arms once more.

* * *

"Debriefing in five minutes," John announced to Daniel and Dude as they passed each other in the hallways.

"You got it," Daniel said, and he and Dude diverted their direction so that they'd start heading towards the Debriefing Room.

Daniel had been in the Debriefing/Briefing/Meeting Room a few times already, but this was the one time he actually paid attention to it. It was a large room with a huge windowed wall to one side, showing the shining silver Spacegate and glittering gold Stargate in the 'Gate Room. In the middle of the room was a very long, black table with a gold outline and middle. The light seemed to radiate from the crystal part of the table, illuminating the room with a pleasant golden glow.

Around the table sat ten chairs—four per side, one on each end—inlayed with silver, giving the person sitting in them a slightly bluish tinge. The General was already seated at the head table, the one closest to the windows, the one furthest from the door. With the glow, he looked almost supernatural in appearance, but Daniel was getting used to those chairs.

"Welcome, welcome," he said as Daniel and Rick took their seats. Daniel sat across the table from Alex, catching her eye as he sat down. Dagón was already at his usual place to the General's left, and Dude sat down on Daniel's other side. The only people they were waiting for were the Colonel and Dr. Fields.

_Of _course_ we're waiting for them,_ Daniel thought as he caught Alex's eye, and then looked towards the two empty spots at the table. Alex seemed to take the hint, and smiled slightly. The relationship between the Colonel and doctor seemed only apparent to the two of them, and they liked keeping it a secret, just between them. Grinning at her, the door opened, and the two missing people walked into the room, seemingly normal, though Daniel could sense a hint of satisfaction between the two of them. The Colonel, to Daniel's mind, had done a bit more than just tell the doctor of the briefing.

"Good. Everyone's here now," the General said as the Colonel sat to his immediate right, and the doctor on the other side of Alex. "Now we can move onto the matter at hand. I've read both Colonel O'Brien's report and Dr. Matthewson's report on what happened and I'm _damn _proud of both Dr. Matthewson and Major Croft for their actions towards this new threat…especially those of Dr. Matthewson.

"Daniel," Hoffman continued while turning towards him, a slight smile on his face, "even though what you did would've been considered the greatest breech in both security and protocol in the armed forces, I'm pleased you did what you did—following your instincts. While Dr. Fields was patching you up, I had her do some tests on your brain, as we can determine if you've gotten control of all of the gifts by the size of a particular part. It shows that even though you do not have full power over most of the abilities you are to gain, you have gotten control of two of your biggest ones: the one that usually is the first to come, and the one that is usually the last to show itself. The dreams that you had were indeed foresight, Daniel, and I apologize for not listening to you."

"No, really sir…it's okay; I—"

"And for that, doctor," the General continued, smiling as Daniel became quiet again, "I've decided that both you and the Major are to receive Medals of Honor at the Christmas Ball, and it is time to take you to see the Sage."

The entire crew of GC-1 looked at Hoffman, their faces betraying their shocked expressions.

Finally, breaking the numbed silence, Colonel O'Brien asked, "Isn't he a wee bit too young to go? I mean, we all were at least half a year old according to The System standards when we went to see her. Shouldn't he wait a bit longer?"

"Well, Colonel, you all went to see her after you gained the knowledge and ability to control your two most important gifts. Daniel has just done that, so I deem it the right time to let him go see her. You never know when the right instant is, as she would say. But I'd bet she wants to see him. You all leave at 18:00 hours. I need two volunteers to go with him."

"Aye, one of 'em 'ill be me," Dagón said.

John began to volunteer when Alex interrupted. "I'll go with him, General."

"Are you sure?" Joseph asked. "You're recovering from a serious wounding of both the body and mind. Are you sure you can handle it?"

Alex smiled. "Yes, sir. I've wanted to see her again, anyway. She might be able to clear up a few things for me. It's almost my time to visit with her again, as well."

"Aye…that it is for me, too," Dagón said. "We be the on'y ones who could take him, anyway, as she don't like those who've seen her more than once a year ta come back before 'tis time."

Hoffman nodded, seeing the logic. "Get geared up. You leave as soon as you can."

"Aye, sir," Dagón said right when both Daniel and Alex said, "Yes, sir," and the three of them left the Briefing Room.


	26. The Sage

Chapter 25 – The Sage 

"What is this place?" Daniel asked Dagón as they stepped away from the Spacegate shield. All around him was what seemed to be a temple. It was huge, made with gigantic slabs of grey and white rock. There were intricate patterns wound around each other in the white rock floor. There were also tapestries hanging on the walls, and the sun on the world glinted through the open windows, bathing the entire hallway in which they had landed in an orange-gold glow.

"It be a temple, Daniel," Dagón said. "The Sage, the last one of the race of the Guardia, lives here. She be the wisest of them all, an' one of the key people in our fight with the 'Ndroidians. She tells us what we need to know to git us to be the best we can in the upcoming year, and she sometimes gives us news on what we'll face or do in the future."

"What does she look like?" Daniel asked.

Dagón winked. "Ye'll see, matey," he said, and opened a door.

On the other side of the door was another one across a vestibule, and Dagón ushered everyone in before closing the first door.

"From this point on, Daniel," Alex said as she looked at him, then the door, "we cannot help you or guide you through anything. You must go in to meet her alone. You'll get some information that you may tell us, if that is your wish, and some of it that must remain private until the time is right. Do you understand?"

Daniel nodded, silent, his eyes locking with hers.

"All right, matey. Ye may open the door, and walk in. We'll be here until the Sage is ready for us," Dagón said, and clapped Daniel's shoulder companionably. "Don't worry. All'll be fine."

Nodding again, the linguist held his breath, said a silent prayer, and opened the door, stepping immediately through and closed the door behind him again.

The inside was not what he was expecting. He was suddenly in a garden, surrounded by tons of flowers in all the colors of the rainbow. The sky was the bluest sky he had ever seen, with fluffy white clouds floating by every once in a while. There were lots of beautiful and exotic trees around, too, giving the path the coolness of shade in the slightly warm temperature of the day. Before him was a walkway, paved with light brown tiles. Daniel began walking.

Being in the garden was very soothing for Daniel, who had missed the wildlife and plants of Old Earth. He loved walking through the flowered paths, just letting the sun shine on him, and feel like time was standing still. But, two things were nagging at the back of his mind. Walking down the path, he had the sudden urge to go back to the door and get Alex, wanting to just walk with her in the garden, talking of things he hadn't gotten to talk with her about. That one bothered him a bit, as he knew he had to do this on his own. The second one was meeting the Sage.

"Oh, don't be so worried! I'm not going to hurt you," a voice called from Daniel's right. He looked over and saw an elderly woman sitting on a wooden bench in front of a pond, feeding some ducks. "Come on over, Daniel. It's about time I got to meet you!"

Daniel walked over, wary towards this new person who seemed to know who he was.

"Oh, yes. I know a lot about you, Daniel," she said in response to his thoughts. "And yes, I _can_ read your mind."

Daniel's jaw dropped, and he walked up to her, looking at her intently as she stood up to greet him.

She was short and dark skinned, with shining brown eyes and very greyish-white hair. She looked very old, yet her skin wasn't that wrinkled, and she had a youthful look in her eyes, though that youngness was coupled with the look of intense and deep wisdom.

The woman smiled, revealing perfectly formed, brilliantly white teeth. "My do you look handsome…and a bit different than I imagined you, but that's okay. As you may have guessed, I am the Sage. And no, I'm not always in this form. This is not my true form, Daniel Matthewson. I look much different in my normal state, but I've found that if I appear to be human when dealing with humans, they tend to be more easy about it."

"That's good," Daniel wheezed, feeling like he couldn't get any air into his lungs. "Why am I here?"

"You're here because it has been a tradition with GC-Teams for the crewmembers to come to me once a year and have some ancient knowledge, or future knowledge, bestowed upon them for the upcoming year. I know that you have brought Alex and Dagón with you, and that is good. Since the GC-Teams are the only ones who know of my existence and have kept it a secret, I've agreed to do this in return for their promise of secrecy, and also for their fighting against the Androidian race…the race that destroyed all but one member of my entire race. As you can guess, I am that one."

"But that would make you—!"

"I am well over seven million years old, Daniel. I have seen many ages of your world, especially the planet you refer to as Old Earth. Your theories _were _right…there was another race of humans before you, and the legends that survive on your planet did indeed actually happen. The reason for the Dark Ages was the Goa'uld because they thought that Earth was getting too powerful, but then the Androidians wiped out the Goa'uld later on and took over the enslavement idea. Now they want to conquer Old Earth because of the hosts it could yield, and because of the resources left in your planet."

"Whoa," Daniel muttered, and the Sage smiled at him.

"It _is_ a lot to take in at once, but don't worry. You'll have time to think about it while you wait for Dagón and Alex to get done with me."

"But I don't—"

"It will be enough time, I assure you," the Sage replied, interrupting him while patting his arm. "Don't you worry."

* * *

"He's been gone a long time!" Alex said in frustration as she paced the length of the foyer. Dagón sat leisurely on one of the two spindly chairs pressed against the wall. "What could be _taking_ him so long? I don't think we took that long while we were in there for the first time with her!"

Dagón smiled and shifted position so his right leg rested on the second chair. "Ye know, Daniel be that restless when ye be back on the last planet," the alien said. "He didn' like not being wit ye. It's a sign, says I, that ye're like thi' now."

"Dagón!" Alex said. "Are you saying that I like him, or something?"

"Aye that I am. Ye seem to have sum kind've bond between the two of ye. He knew sum'tin' be wrong with ye and wanted to go back fer ye. An' he be right. I think that ye're destined for the other."

"Well, I _do_ like him…but only as a _friend_," she said defensively.

"Oh, methinks that the feelin's a wee bit more deeper 'n that," Dagón said, putting his laced fingers behind his head to support it as he stretched his legs.

"Dagón…I—well I…argh!" Alex shoved the pirate's foot off of the other chair and sat down, putting her head in her hands. A few minutes went by before she looked up again. "He really paced back and forth while I was on '080?"

"That he did, aye. He be restless, determined t'go back because of an instinct that ye be in trouble. He paced in the Dialing Room every day, staring at the 'Gate, as if ye were goin' to walk out o' it sometime soon."

"Oh," she said. "He _was _right…"

"Aye, that 'e was. That 'e was," Dagón said, and went into his own thoughts.

* * *

Daniel shifted uncomfortably. The Sage had been looking at him non-stop for the past two minutes, gently probing his mind enough so that she got used to him and so that she could give him advice about his future.

"I see," she said softly, then looked at him. "On your path there will be many hardships…but there will be also be times that are joyful, times that are peaceful, and times that are loving beyond imagination. I fear that you will have to make a choice. Daniel, you have the potential to be the Preserver, the prophesized one—you need to choose whether to embrace that part of you and become all you can, or run away from it and hide."

Daniel swallowed and looked at her with a pained face. "Me? The Preserver? What do I do? How can I do it? What does that mean?"

The Sage raised her hand up. "The answers will come clear to you, _if _you choose to follow that path. When you're back on your ship, however, and are alone, ask Alex later tonight. She'll explain the legend to you, and you'll eventually understand.

"Daniel, I also give you this piece of advice: things sometimes aren't what they appear to be, and things will happen in the places you least expect them to. Keep your eyes open, and your heart true, for some things will happen and you'll wonder why you didn't see them before."

Daniel nodded. "That I understand."

The Sage smiled, touching his arm with a hand. Her happy mood suddenly dropped as she did so, and her eyes became glazed. The linguist waited, sensing that she was having a vision. After a minute that seemed like eternity, the Sage stirred and looked hauntingly up at Daniel.

"You will be put through many terrible things, Daniel. Some of them are unspeakable, but you must know some of it. Before the Christmas Ball, you will be seduced and physically connected with an Androidian goddess, your mind will be erased, and you will come very close to death. At another point, after the ball, you must be _'The Friend who turns into the 'Enemy' to remain a Friend' _and it will be an emotional burden for you, as well as others—the way you must be this will become clear to you later. A bit of warning for you, however: do not tell them that you are the friend in that saying. It will work to your advantage if you keep that a secret. Remember these words, Daniel, and please be careful. Caution is one of many good virtues."

"Thank you," he told her while bowing his head in a respectful fashion. "I'll try to be as careful as I can."

The Sage smiled, and Daniel turned to leave, knowing he had been subtly dismissed. But, as he began to walk, he turned around, and asked just for the heck of it, "Is there any possible chance that I'll fall in love?"

The wise woman's smile broadened. "Yes, Daniel. There's a very huge chance of it. Please send Alex in next."

"Yes, ma'am," he said with a salute, and walked back to the door.

* * *

"So there ye are!" Dagón said as the door opened to the vestibule and Daniel stepped in. "Ye took long enough! What kept ye?"

"We were talking…lost track of time. I'm sorry. Alex, she wants to see you next," Daniel said, wearily sitting down on the chair the Major had gotten up from.

"All right," she said while looking at him, and left the small room, walking down the path to the Sage.

"So what in_fer_mation did ye get from th' Sage?" Dagón asked, his pirate accent creeping back into his voice. "Ye know ye need to tell Hoffman once we get back…"

"I do? Great. Well," he said, then sighed. "I'm to, um…uh…_mate_ with an Androidian goddess against my will and—"

"Yer gonna _what_?" the Machiá exploded. "_Why_!"

"The Sage said that my mind was going to be erased, so that's how she's going to do it…I think. I don't want that to happen…Hell, I don't know what I'm going to do if it does! But now I know what's going to happen, so maybe I can prevent it.

"The Sage also said that I'll come very close to death. Great, huh? She says that everything will fall into place eventually."

"Whoa. That there's some deep kluat."

Daniel perked up from where he had slouched over, his head in his hands. "Kluat. It means 'stuff' in Machiá, doesn't it?"

Dagón smiled. "Aye, that it does."

The two trailed into silence.

A while later, Alex exited the Sage's garden, pale and shaken.

"Dagón," she said weakly while pointing to the door. Nodding, he got up and left to go see the Sage, offering his chair to the pale woman before he left. She sat down gratefully.

"Something wrong?" Daniel asked, concerned for her weak look.

"The Sage's words of advice were a bit too much for me," she admitted. "I need a while to think about all she gave me."

The linguist nodded. "Tell me about it. Almost all of what she said was extremely bad."

"What was your good news?"

The man sighed, then looked at her sideways, his heart beating weirdly, his pulse racing. "Do you really want to know?" After seeing her nod faintly, he sighed again. "She said I had a huge chance of falling in love. I didn't want to doubt her, but I do. I mean, it could only be for a minute, or it could be with someone I'm not supposed to be in love with…I mean, all her warnings can go either way, and they're not particularly clear… What about you?"

Alex shook her head. "There's nothing good she told me," she lied as she looked at the floor. "She said that things will be good for me in some places, but that I'll have to go through a lot of difficult times in order to reach them." Alex glanced at him. "She also said that some things aren't what they seem to be…that a friend will turn into the enemy to remain a friend. I don't know what that means."

"She told me that, too, but I dunno its meaning," Daniel bluffed, remembering the Sage's words. He pretended to think, having a long moment pass in silence. "It probably will come clear later," he said to her, breaking the silence. "We'll know when the time comes."

"Yes," she said. "You're probably right. I hope Dagón finishes up fast. I'd like to get back to the ship to think."

"Yeah," Daniel said. "I think I need to do that, as well."


	27. Shown and Tell

Chapter 26 – Shown and Tell

"Welcome back to the SGB, GC-1," Hoffman greeted Alex, Daniel, and Dagón as they walked numbly down the ramp. "I see your time with the Sage did not go well. You each will come to my office and tell me what she told you at 22:00 hours. Is that okay?"

Each nodded feebly and left for their quarters, wanting some solitude to digest the information that was stuffed into their brains.

Daniel knocked on Alex's door after an hour of meditating in his room. He wanted to know if she felt better, and he wanted to know of the myths about the Preserver, and what the Sage meant by what she had told him.

"Come in," her muffled voice said from the door, and Daniel put his hand on the reader, making the sliding door move upward. He walked into her room.

It was almost exactly like his. There was a bed, a dresser, a closet, and an adjoining bathroom, but it looked like someone actually lived in it, like it was almost home. Around the room, there were touches of home: a stuffed animal, a painting, a decorative hanging… There was also a wooden cross hanging on the farthest wall with a padded couch-like bench in front of it.

And before the cross sat Alex, her head bowed in prayer.

"I'm sorry…am I interrupting you?" he asked softly, as he hung back by the door.

"No, no…it's okay. I've been doing this a lot lately. Helps me think clearer, you know? Helps me deal with the things we face here day after day…"

"Mind if I join you?" he asked. "I sure could use a clear head right about now…"

"Not at all," Alex said, and indicated the space on the bench to her left. Daniel allowed the door to slide down again and he sat next to her, his head bowed, his mind set on prayer.

Another hour passed in friendly silence as the two of them talked to their God.

"Alex," he said, breaking the silence, "what is the legend about the Preserver? The Sage said that I should ask you about it the next time we were off on the ship. I think that this time is now. Would you tell me?"

Opening her eyes, she looked at him. "The Sage said that I should tell you when you asked…she said that you would be ready." The Major smiled. "I guess she _is_ as good as she seems to be!"

"And?" Daniel asked. "What about it?"

"Well, the legend began quite a few thousand years ago…it said that a man would be 'reborn' into The System…one that would be an anomaly. He would fight alongside his friends and allies, and because of him they would triumph over the Androidians. The Preserver is also the rightful ruler of Tierra. Even though it is in an Ice Age and in a Dark Age now, that's just induced by the Androidians. Once they are defeated, however, the planet will thaw very rapidly and the civilizations down there will advance at a very rapid rate. This very fast development will be from the Sage, as she wants to show her gratitude for the people who destroyed the race that destroyed hers."

"That's it?" he asked.

"Yes, that's it."

"I think there's more that you're not saying…" Daniel said, being able to read the tone of voice she used.

"All right, all right. There's also a Prophesized Female. One who could spur the Preserver on. She is said to be very strong and beautiful…like a lifeline for the Preserver and will be his queen on Tierra when he is triumphant in battle. It has been said that offspring between the two of them would result in the most powerful force the Universe has seen in many years."

"And she hasn't been found yet?"

Alex shook her head, though Daniel got the twinge of feeling that she was bluffing again. He let it slide, however, as he knew he had lied to her before. He would ask Dude, Dagón, or John about it later.

"You know, I wasn't very religious before," she said, breaking the silence between them. "Were you?"

"Not very. I attended church when I could, but I was usually at home grading papers. I had no life."

"Yeah, that was me, too. But then my father left us three years ago…he had leukemia and cancer, and he just vanished into thin air. My mother and I tried to look for him, but he wasn't anywhere; it was like he was wiped off the face of the Earth. I prayed every night for his return, safe and sound, just like I prayed for the cancer and leukemia to go away…but so far I've never found him."

"Is that why you entered The System?" he asked softly, learning things about Alex he never knew before.

She nodded. "Yes. If my father would've been there with us, I would've refused the General's offer. I would've wanted to actually still know my father and have him know me so that I could be with him during his sickness…but when he was gone, it was like I had nothing to lose anymore. I joined The System, and now my mother doesn't even know she has a daughter and is only mourning the death of her husband, whose body has never been found.

"I'm sorry, I'm rambling. You must be bored and annoyed with my problems. You should've stopped me."

"No," he said, his voice gentle and kind, "I'm here for you and I'll listen to anything you want to tell me. We'll find your father…I'll help you for as long as you look. We _will _find him."

"Thank you," she said, and they both looked at the cross on her wall.

Opening his mouth to say something a while later, Daniel was interrupted by Alex. "Whoa. It's almost 22:00 hours. We'd better go see what Hoffman wants. I'm very tired," she added with a yawn. "I'd like to get some sleep."

"You and me both," the linguist said while standing up, stretching out his arms and legs. "What does he do anyway?"

"Well," the Major replied as she accepted help from Daniel for getting up, "he listens and jots down whatever we tell him the Sage said and he'll consider what it means."

"So we could just tell him anything, say that the Sage said it, and he'll believe us?"

Alex had her old gleam back in her shaken eyes. "Well, yeah…I think he would. I've never thought of that before! But you mustn't do it, Daniel! It wouldn't be nice."

"Yeah, yeah…all right. I wasn't actually going to do it!" said Daniel defensively. "I was merely speculating."

"Well, don't do that, either, when you have a head full of new news. It makes you almost as bad as John."

"Oh! The horror!" the linguist whispered in a faked frightened tone. "Me like John! Ahh!"

Alex smiled. "Let's go tell the General what we know and get it over with. As it is your first time, it'll be an adventure for you."

"Great…" Daniel said and they left the Major's room, heading for Hoffman's office.

* * *

Daniel and Alex sat down before Hoffman on either side of Dagón. The General did not look like he was having fun. He motioned for Dagón to begin, and the alien began to relate to Joseph what he had learned from the Sage.

"Sir, she told me that me talking'd change sometime soon. That I'll have my brain altered from something and that the result will be very different. She also say the thing 'ill change the way I act. I be very wary 'bout this. I don' wanna change the way I be, but if she say that it's fer the better, then I guess 'll be content with who I become."

"Is that all she said?" Hoffman appeared to be concerned about what Dagón had revealed to him.

"Nay," the alien said. "She also said to tell ye this: a frien' 'ill turn into the enemy to remain a frien'. If ye knows what that means, then ye'll be ready for part of the journey to defeating the Androidians."

Hoffman looked up from writing it down. "Thank you, Dagón. You may go turn in for the night."

"Thank ye, sir," the alien said with a salute and tiredly stumbled off towards the sleeping quarters.

The General looked over at Daniel. "Would you like to continue?"

Daniel shook his head. "Sir, could I go last? There are a lot of things that I would like to tell you that are best told in private. Sorry, Alex," he added.

Hoffman nodded. "All right, doctor. Major, what information did you get?"

"Well, sir," she said, while wringing her hands, "she said the same thing to me as she did to Dagón—that friend and enemy thing. She also told me that, um…that, uh…that I've already _met _the Preserver, if he so chooses to accept the role. She also told me that my almost getting raped was for a purpose, though she didn't tell me more than that, telling me that I must figure it out on my own. She also told me that I would have to reveal a truth to someone, which would help them to fight a fatal disease and get better. She was pretty vague, but she said that when the time came, I'd know."

Hoffman looked up from his writing. "Is that all?"

"Yes, sir," she said with a yawn. "She told me other things, but they were for me."

"All right. Good night, Alex."

"Thank you, sir," she said again, and left the room, glancing back to see Hoffman indicate to Daniel to move to the center chair.

"So, Daniel, how'd it go?" the General asked when his door closed for the second time that night.

"Not very well, sir." Daniel said this with total sincerity, and the General became instantly alarmed.

"What did she tell you?"

"Well, sir, she said that there would be a lot of hard times ahead, not just for me, but for all of us. She also told me that I have the potential to become the Preserver, if I so choose to take that path in life."

The General looked at him with a solemn expression. "And are you going to?" he asked softly, as if he wanted no one else to hear.

Daniel was taken aback. "I-I'm not sure, sir. I still need to think about it. I need to see what I can picture myself doing and make a decision from there. I might make a subconscious decision to follow that path, though not know it until I'm so into it that I know what I'm doing and so acknowledge it in that way. I guess what I'm trying to say, sir, is that I'm not really sure right about now."

Hoffman nodded. "I understand. Is there anything else she told you?"

"She told me of the friend and enemy thing that both Alex and Dagón have told you about. She also said that I'd be…um…well…physically, er, _connected_ with an Androidian goddess…um…_mate_ if you will. Yes, I know…I don't like it either. I'll also have my mind erased, and I will come very close to death. It sounds really fun, doesn't it?"

Daniel looked up from the spot on the desk he had been looking at, and saw that the General was staring at him with his mouth slightly open. "_That's_ what she told you?"

Daniel nodded glumly. "She also said that I'd fall in love, though for how long or with whom she did not specify."

"Could it be with the Prophesized Female?"

"Who exactly is that? Alex said something about her, but she wouldn't elaborate on it." Daniel looked at the General with tired eyes over his glasses. "_Please_ tell me. I need to know. Everyone but me knows about these myths and I'm supposedly the one who _is_ this myth."

"The Prophesized Female is the woman to whom the Preserver is to fall in love with. It is said that she will save him from certain death, and they will have an unbreakable bond of love. A child between the two will be the most powerful human in the world, having all the secrets of the Universe at its disposal. No one knows who this prophesized woman is, other than that she _will _be human and the bond you have will outlast the human race. It'd be interesting to see if the prophecy comes true…"

"Oh, yeah. Thanks. But falling in love is a good thing…right?"

Hoffman smiled slightly. "It is. But you _do _know that personal relationships between personnel on the same team aren't allowed, right?"

Daniel was confused. "It isn't?"

"No. The President doesn't want any permanent bonds between operatives. That way, you won't think with your heart instead of your head in hard situations…"

"Ah. So, theoretically, if…oh, say…the _Colonel _was involved with, uh, _Dr. Fields_—that wouldn't be allowed?"

"No," the General said tiredly and yawned. "Thank you for telling me what the Sage said. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes, sir. Good night, sir," Daniel said and left, trying to smother a laugh. Walking down the corridor to the dormitories, he had the sudden urge to go get a cup of hot chocolate, as the very core of his being somehow felt like an ice cube.

Walking into the kitchen with a smile, he saw Alex was surprisingly there, already drinking a steaming cup.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked, walking to the table with a cup in his hand.

"Sure," she said weakly and took another sip. "What's up? Why're you so happy?"

"I'm not really happy," he confessed, "but the General just told me that romantic relationships between operatives were forbidden, and I just asked him, theoretically, that if John was involved with Kate it would be prohibited, and he just said yes, like it was an example. He didn't even take the hint…"

Alex smiled slightly. "That would've been so funny to see. How did you manage to not laugh while you were in there?"

"I'm not sure," Daniel said after taking a sip of the drink, feeling its warmth course through his body. "I struggled with it until Hoffman dismissed me. When I was gone, it came then. It was pretty funny to see him take it as an example only. Are we the only ones who see it? Is everyone _that _blind?"

Alex put her mug down and looked up at him before she answered. "I guess. They don't usually see beyond their own wants and needs. I usually don't, either. You do. That's a good quality."

"I do? I didn't notice I did that. I mean, I've been alienated all my life, so I guess I've gotten used to eyeing people, keeping track of what they were doing, and seeing whether if what they're doing would be a threat to me or not. It's a habit, I guess."

"But it's a good habit," she said, then yawned and looked at her black standard-issued military watch. "Wow. It's passed midnight. I'd say it's safe to say that we should be in bed by now. I bid you goodnight."

"Wait! I'll walk you there. I should go to bed, too." Daniel took both their mugs and put them in the sink. Then, they turned off the lights and left, Daniel already missing the way he could easily talk to her.

"Good night," he said to her when they had reached the bedrooms; he opened the door to his room.

"You, too," she said and entered her room, leaving him with a small smile.


	28. Changing Dagón

Chapter 27 – Changing Dagón

"I be bored," Dagón announced to the rest of GC-1 around the dinner table, eating supper sans the General and Doctor Fields.

"So are we, my friend. It's been two weeks since ya went to see the Sage and the General hasn't found any places where we can go and check something out yet." John leaned back in his chair as he sipped on some _Whoosh_. "It usually isn't this slow."

"Ah," Daniel said over his mashed potatoes.

"Not that I mind having some R and R," John added.

"Of course," Daniel said.

"Actually, dudes, there's been a new discovery and the big dude wants you to go as soon as we're done eating," Dude said, smiling a bit as he sipped his pineapple-orange juice.

"What! And _when_ were you going to share this with us?" John obnoxiously stared at Dude with faked-anger.

"Chill out, dude! I was going to say it when you were done complaining about having nothing to do, and so I did. Was that enough for you?"

"Yes!" John was quite cheerful. "Everyone done? I say we go!"

"Yeah," everyone agreed and they got up from the table, leaving their dishes there for their automatic dishwashing droid to clean them.

* * *

"And what are we supposed to be looking for?" Daniel asked as he, John, Alex, and Dagón stepped out of the Spacegate's shield.

"A sort of device," John answered vaguely and they all looked around.

They were in some sort of chamber with no windows or doors. It seemed to them that the room had been unoccupied for a very long time, though there were torches burning in the corners, and the tan-stone walls were brightly lit.

"Everyone spread out," John said. "Dagón, could you look at that machine in the middle of the room? See if you know who made it…if it's Machiá or not…and also if it's what we're looking for."

"Aye, matey," Dagón said and went over to the device.

It looked almost like a DOC, though different. There was a black half-orb in the center of the blank, gunmetal-grey dais. Around the perimeter was a sort of indentation with a bluish glow emanating from it.

Leaning over the top of the dais to get a better look, Dagón looked deep into the half of orb, feeling transfixed. Suddenly, the blue glow intensified, becoming brighter and brighter, Dagón trapped in the orb's power. Not aware that he had yelled out, the glow became more intense and the black orb began to swirl around, turning different colors, faster and faster.

Around him, he vaguely heard John yell, "Get him out of there!" and he could hardly feel the hands that dragged him out of the orb's command. That was the last thing he remembered before the world went black.

* * *

"We need a medical team here, now!" John yelled as he and Daniel dragged Dagón into the SGB, Alex trailing behind them.

"What happened?" Hoffman yelled over the clatter of the med team getting Dagón onto a stretcher.

"He looked into the device you sent us to go look at—I confirmed that it was what we wanted. It wrapped him in an electromagnet field and he couldn't get away. He began to yell and we all got him away from it," Alex explained, as she was the only one left in the 'Gate Room with the General—Daniel and John had gone with Dagón.

The man nodded. "I understand. Let's go!" Hoffman said and both he and Alex left at a run to catch up with their injured comrade.

"I need some morphine, stat!" Alex heard Kate call to her assistants. "And get an IV started. He just needs some boost of help; his symbiote will take over from there."

"Yes, ma'am," one said and they did just as she had told them to. The rest of GC-1 waited in anticipation. After two hours, Dagón finally groaned and opened his eyes.

"Dagón! How's it feel?" John asked, walking up to his bed.

"Not so good, O'Brien," the alien said, slurring his words a bit. "My head is in discomfort and I feel like a wounded Fraturow; but other than that, my symbiote will sustain and repair my extensive injuries. Thank you all for rescuing me."

The entire GC-1 crew stared at him in shock. That was not the Dagón they had been used to!

"Are you sure you're okay?" John asked. "I mean, well, because I'm not matey or hearty anymore to you."

"It does appear that my language capacity has been altered," Dagón said in perfect diction with his low voice, "but this is what the Sage has prophesized for me, and now that I know what it is like, I think I prefer this manner of speaking over the one I had previously."

"Whoa," John said. "This is really freaky."

"Indeed," Dagón said with a slight nod. He then closed his eyes and waited for a few minutes. He then rose from his hospital bed. "My symbiote is done repairing the damage. Thank you, Dr. Fields, for your assistance."

"No problem, Dagón. I'd like to run some tests, however. I would like to see how the device has altered your brain."

"As you wish," Dagón said, and then saw a glimpse of himself in a mirror. Cringing slightly at his long hair and disheveled appearance, he shrugged it off and followed the doctor into another room.

"That is so totally radical, man!" Dude exclaimed. "He no longer talks the lingo of the pirate! Can't say I'm gonna miss that, though, mate. It was kinda hard to figure out, though he really is one totally radical dude. Think he's changed even more than just that?"

"Dunno," the Colonel said. "Let's go debrief the General."

Alex and Daniel both said, "Yes, sir," while "Yes, dude," was heard from Rick, and the four of them went to go talk with their CO about the astounding change that had occurred within Dagón.

* * *

The four of them walked down to the debriefing room and found the General already seated at the head of the table, waiting for them to come and tell him what had happened.

"Well, sir," John started while everyone sat around the glowing table, "we exited the Spacegate into a totally enclosed room with no windows or doors—just like the probe said." He then gestured to Alex.

"All right. Sir, the strange thing about the room was that the torches in the room were burning and that there was actually oxygen there to breathe. It was as if there was a vent somewhere, but I couldn't see one."

"And how did Dagón get the way he is now?" The General leaned forward in his chair, his elbows on the table and fingertips together, looking straight at Alex.

"Well, sir," she responded, "he was looking into the device that we knew was there. We didn't get a good look at what it actually did because Dagón yelled out in pain and then collapsed. I'd like to go back there and look at it again some other time, if that's all right, sir. It might not have the same affect on me, as I am not Machiá."

The General nodded. "Some other time, you may, but not now. That's all that happened?"

"Yes, sir," John said. "And when Daniel and I picked him up off of the floor, Alex dialed home, and you took over from there."

The General nodded, then changed gears. "While you were away, I received an invitation from Flahari. He's throwing a celebration commemorating a new ruler. He's invited us all there. I cannot go, as I need to stay here and keep an eye on things, but Dr. Fields will go in my stead. She deserves a break from all this."

Daniel saw the Colonel's eyes light up, though he actually downplayed his excitement and took the news casually. "Good choice, sir," John said while he visibly struggled to hold his excitement in. "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow at 16:00 hours or so. The festivities, I hear, will last close to all night. You all will camp out there and come back sometime the next day, whenever you can. It's your vacation away from the SGB."

"Thank you, sir!" John was almost ecstatic.

"But," the General continued, "I'll have you all equipped with comms so that if something comes up, I'll be able to contact you and prematurely end that R and R."

"Understood." GC-1 looked at their General, knowing that the debriefing was over. Nodding slightly, the General got up, allowing everyone else to get up, too.

"You may all go back to talk with Dagón. I need to fill out paperwork for Old Earth," the older man said and walked out of the room, towards his office. GC-1 went back to the medical bay.

* * *

"I feel perfectly fine, DanielMatthewson," Dagón said to Daniel, saying his name in a new way—one that connected his first and last name into one fluid name. Daniel was getting used to it, though having his entire name said in one breath was very strange…especially when he was used to Dagón calling him matey or hearty.

"Did Kate find anything different about your brain?" Alex was leaning against the wall, weary from all of the day's excitement.

"No, Major Croft, she did not. She just told me that my verbal part of the cortex was probably wiped clean and replaced with a whole new dialogue."

"Ah."

"Indeed. I do much prefer this speech to that of what I previously had, as I have said."

"So, Dagón, my alien friend, do you feel up to going back to '080 for a party?" John jumped down from a hospital table he had been sitting on and fixed the Machiá with an inquisitive stare.

"Of course," the alien said while raising an eyebrow. "My symbiote has long healed me from what had been injured. I am…_'up to it'_."

"Great! We're ready to go tomorrow!" John went into Dr. Fields' office to tell her of the news.


	29. A Party of Need

Chapter 28 – A Party Of Need

"Have fun!" Hoffman called from the Dialing Room as GC-1 along with Dude and Kate walked up the ramp, heading into the shield.

"We will!" John assured him before he walked through, letting the connection with P97-080 cease.

Stepping onto the planet on the other side of the Spacegate, John, as well as the rest of GC-1, was met with a huge applause as the entire city of people had come to welcome their liberators.

Amidst the cheering and loud crowd, Daniel and Alex recognized Flahari walking towards them, a smile on his face.

"I bid thee all welcome!" he said with a huge smile. "As you can see the damage that both Zeus and Pollux has done to our fair city has been rebuilt, and we have installed a new government. Come! You shall all come and get dressed in ceremonial clothes, for you all are our guests of honor."

Looking at one another, GC-1 followed Flahari without a word and did just as he told them to.

Alex was a bit wary of the dress she was supposed to wear. It was much more simple and conservative than what Zeus had had her put on, but it was still a dress she wasn't sure she wanted, as just the thought of putting one on brought back the memories.

Holding it up, she determined that it wasn't that bad and that it was a whole lot better than what she had previously had worn on her last visit to the planet. It was silver and iridescent, showing all the colors of the rainbow in them. It had a light blue corset over the gown and huge sleeves, with a heart-shaped neckline that hung off of her shoulders, showing her sapphire jewel. It was simple and easy to move around in, though it was elegant at the same time.

Walking out of the tent she had changed in, she met Daniel, John, and Dagón, who were standing around and talking, trying not to laugh at the others' ceremonial robes.

"Hey guys," she said while walking up to them. "You look very strange…"

"Thanks, and so do you," John said dryly. They all looked at her as she studied them.

They were all wearing identical robes, though of different color. They each had puffy, flowy pants and long-sleeved shirts with a tunic-like garment with a high neck and lots of gold embroidery over them. Alex inhaled a sharp breath. They were almost exactly what Zeus' ceremonial robes were like, though the men's robes were different in color.

Looking from one to the other, the Major strangely found comfort in the difference of their robes. Dagón was dressed in black pants and shirt with an orange and gold embroidered tunic over—the colors matching his skin so that he looked like a walking firestorm. Daniel wore silvery pants and shirt with a dark and light blue tunic—the blue making his eyes seem like deep pools of water beneath his glasses. And the Colonel was wearing tan colored pants and shirt with a green and brown embroidered tunic—making his complexion look more rugged, his eyes a bit more earthy. They looked like the three branches of the world: earth, fire, and water.

Trying to catch Daniel's eye, she failed and so glanced down at herself, concluding that she must be wind. Just when she wondered when the others were going to come, Dude and Kate came from different directions to join the group once more. Kate's gown was very similar to Alex's though it was a very dark purple color that turned slightly navy and black when she moved and seemed to swirl around her. Her corset was a black and her billowy sleeves were cut short. Darkness had arrived.

Dude came wearing pants and a shirt of bright gold with a very yellow and white tunic. The clothes he was wearing matched his bleach-blonde hair, making his entire person shine bright. Light had joined them, and their whole group was ready for the ceremonies. Earth, fire, wind, water, darkness, and light were together, and with each other, no one could stand in their way.

Flahari led them in a procession down the main road of the kingdom, the people cheering them all on. They finally came to an open space where a great bonfire was set. The six GC-1 personnel took a seat where Flahari had told them to go and they watched as a leader and a government was voted into office. After it was done, the party started and aimed to last for well into the morning.

As the party ran on into the night, a man suddenly walked up to John and began talking to him, seemingly trying to convince the Colonel to let him do something. O'Brien kept politely refusing, and the man—obviously drunk—got angry. As the guy stormed off, John turned towards his team, obviously annoyed at what he had been talking about.

"He just told me that he was the greatest warrior this planet has seen in ages," the Colonel told them.

"And?" Dude asked. "What was his problem?"

"He informed me that he wanted Alex to have the honor to mate with him so that her child would be strong."

"And what did you tell him?" Alex demanded, enraged that that man would even think of something like that.

"I politely refused him. He seemed kinda pissed, though. I think he just wanted to get it on, if you catch my drift."

"Yes, sir," Alex said dryly. "We all catch it quite clearly."

"You know, maybe it would've been worth it," Daniel said to John, not thinking. "We could use more strong people to help fight the Androidians. It's an even trade, right? Her virginity for a strong warrior in The System…"

"Yeah," John replied, seeing the logic. Both looked over to where the Major was. Alex gave them a dirty look and got up, storming back to her tent. John looked sideways back at Daniel, and the linguist only shrugged.

Outwardly, Daniel pretended that he didn't really care about his words hurting Alex, but on the inside, he was punishing himself and was in a lot of pain. Turning back to the entertainment, Daniel hoped it would take away the guilty feeling he had inside. Immersing himself in the music, he lost track of time.

* * *

"Well, kids," Colonel O'Brien said two and a half hours later, right when everyone was getting up from the show, "I think it's time to go to bed. We're heading back home tomorrow, so we'd better get rested. It's been really fun here, but it must end."

"Yes, sir," GC-1 said, and they all made their way to their tents.

The four tents provided by Flahari were huge. Made out of different colored, heavy, canvas-like cloth, they seemed to be almost gypsy-like in nature and were at least five feet by eight, while being five feet high. They seemed to be made for people of great importance, and GC-1 crewmembers were honored and grateful that they provided them with accommodations. And, assured that they would have the best night sleep inside the tents with all the pillows and blankets they would want—Flahari left them to go to his tent.

"Daniel!" John called, catching up to the linguist, his earth tone tunic flapping as he ran.

"Yeah?"

"Well, um, I was wondering if you'd mind sleeping in Dagón's tent instead of ours," the Colonel said, gesturing first towards the royal blue tent they were supposed to use, and then to the dark green one Dagón was occupying. John had a weird glint in his eye as he said that, and Daniel knew what was going to happen in there.

"Oh, I suppose so. Don't stay up too late and wear yourself out, okay? We have work to do tomorrow." Daniel walked away before a shocked John could reply back.

The linguist veered towards Dagón's tent and knocked on it. After a moment's pause, Dagón unzipped the door, revealing the orange light of many lit candles inside. "DanielMatthewson," the Machiá said in greeting, as was his new custom, and gestured for the linguist to enter. "For what purpose have you come to visit me?"

"Well, Dagón," Daniel said with a slight smile, "I was kicked out of my tent by John and Kate."

"O'Brien kicked you out of your tent?"

"Yep."

"But for what purpose has he done that?" Dagón clearly wasn't getting what Daniel was hinting at.

"They want to be alone, Dagón." Daniel tried to think of a way he could explain this to the alien without really getting into detail.

"But if they wished to be alone, why did not they leave so you could sleep?"

"Well, uh, you see Dagón, they want to be alone all night."

"For what purpose?" Dagón asked again.

"Well, they probably want to make out."

"'Make out?' I am unfamiliar with this term."

Daniel sighed. "Um, well, it means, uh, kissing and caressing very intimately."

"And what is the reason for that?"

"Well, sometimes, um, two people make out because they want it to build up their feelings for the other so that they partake in a more physical union," Daniel said, very uncomfortable to explain things to Dagón. Nevertheless, the Machiá gave him a quizzical look, and the linguist had no choice but to explain. "A more physical union…you know…um, a mating?"

"O'Brien wishes to mate with Dr. Fields!" Dagón seemed both alarmed and surprised at this. Daniel then reminded himself that probably no one else, besides Alex and him, knew about the relationship between the doctor and Colonel.

"Well, from the way they were acting, I'd say yes, but without the hope to create offspring."

"You humans are a very complicated race. However, it is time for my Monileek. Goodnight, DanielMatthewson."

"Goodnight, Dagón," Daniel replied and turned to lie down to sleep.

Sleep did not claim him, however.

Daniel tossed and turned, but sleep stayed away like a wild animal from fire. The guiltiness he felt at dismissing Alex like he had gnawed in his stomach until he couldn't stand it anymore.

Getting up, he looked over at the Machiá, motionless and deep in Monileek meditation. The alien would not miss him. The linguist left the tent, heading towards Alex's.

The woman was not asleep when he knocked on her deep purple tent.

"Who's there?" Alex called, and Daniel took a deep, shaky breath.

"Daniel," he said, and could hear her begin to unzip the front of her tent so that she could look out at him.

"What do you want from me? To humiliate me further?" she snapped, nevertheless unzipping the door to her tent.

"The truth be told," Daniel said, his face and voice showing total sincerity, "I wanted to apologize to you."

Alex studied him with a hard expression.

"All right," she said after a minute's deliberation, and allowed him in.

"Thank you. Alex, I'm sorry for putting you down earlier. I wasn't thinking…I haven't had a full night's sleep in a week and my thinking has taken a toll because of it. It was very inappropriate of me to say what I did, and I'd like you to forgive me."

"Why is that?"

He looked at her, guiltily. "I felt terrible. I couldn't sleep."

"Oh." She looked at her wringing hands. "Well, that just somewhat disproves a theory I had," she muttered quietly, obviously not wanting him to hear. Daniel couldn't stop his curiousness, however.

"Which is?" he asked.

Alex looked at him, wavering a bit and shocked that he heard her before she said, "That you don't like me. You don't come to talk to me scientist-to-scientist any longer, let alone friend to friend…man to woman—or at least that's how it feels, to me—since after we debriefed the General about the Sage. I think we make a great team, Daniel; I really do. You're the only one who can really understand me when I talk without thinking, unlike the Colonel and General. That's why I want to know the reason you're evading me…"

Daniel looked at her, an expression on his face Alex couldn't read. As so many times before, the linguist's heart began to beat weirdly and his pulse quickened—his heart literally ached. He didn't know what was happening to him. Then, without thinking, he reached out and lightly touched her cheek, bringing her head to his. Once she was close, he looked into her eyes, then closed his, kissing her softly. Both of their jewels glowed faintly in the flickering darkness of the tent as the fire died outside.

"I've never tried to avoid you…" he said once they parted, "but it's just that when I'm around you, I feel way different than I've ever felt before…I'm not really sure what it is," he finished while shaking his head, his heart almost beating out of his chest, his mind reeling. "I was a bit nervous…I'm sorry! I shouldn't have done that. Once again I acted without thinking… I—"

Alex stopped his talking with a gentle hand to his lips and stared into his eyes, a very surprised, yet pleased, look in them. Taking her hand away from his surprised face, she clutched them tight together and put them in her lap. "You needn't have apologized for that, but now it's my turn to talk without thinking…Would you kiss me again?" she shyly, sweetly, asked a minute later, a look of uncertainty in her eyes.

Slowly taking his glasses off, Daniel leaned forward and kissed her again, this time more confidently as Alex leaned into it, taking the kiss he had first given her to a new level. Sitting there in the middle of the tent, Daniel and Alex began to do precisely what Daniel had been uncomfortable explaining to Dagón.

The linguist pulled the Major closer to him and their kisses continued in a frenzy of sudden need. Abruptly, Daniel pulled away.

"What's the matter?" Alex asked, alarmed that something had disturbed him from continuing.

"Isn't this against the rules?"

"Yeah—the rule that members of a team cannot have personal relationships with others on their team so they wouldn't get emotionally attached."

"Yeah; that's the one. I mean…can they actually have that law?"

Alex looked at him from where she was sitting and cocked her head to one side. "The General says that GC-1 can't get emotionally connected, but it happens anyway. We're together all the time and depend on the others to get everyone out of danger. He even told me that people who depend on the other for safety develop very strong bonds."

"So then why have the rule that you can't have a personal relationship with another person on the team? I mean, John and Kate are definitely having one, since they both kicked me out of the tent the Colonel and I were occupying so they could be alone, but they don't really care about the rules."

"Well," Alex said, "I think that if the General doesn't know it, then it can happen…he's really blind, too, in those matters as you can see with him not seeing the relationship between Colonel O'Brien and Kate."

Daniel smiled. "Yeah. And he's not off world as much as we are…he doesn't really see what's going on out here."

Nodding, Alex yawned and smiled. "Excuse me. It's getting really late and we should get to sleep if we want to feel rested on our journey home tomorrow."

"Yeah. I'd better get back to Dagón's and my tent. He'll wonder where I went."

As Daniel made a move to get up, he felt a hand on his arm. Turning back, Alex looked into his eyes.

"Please stay," she whispered. "I don't want to be here alone…especially after what that man offered you guys."

Smiling slightly, Daniel turned and closed the door to the tent securely with the zipper. "Don't you worry about him. I'd never let them do that to you," he said softly to Alex as he lay next to her, asleep the moment his head touched his pillow, a protective arm around her waist.

* * *

It was somewhat early in the morning when Alex woke up. Daniel was already up, his knees drawn up, his head in his arms, thinking.

"What's the matter?" she asked softly.

"I'm just thinking of what the Sage told me." Daniel looked up from where his head had rested on his arms, his face looking different without his glasses on.

"Would it ease your mind if you told me?"

Daniel sighed. "It would, but unfortunately I can't. It needs to happen without me alerting anyone. It's vital to Tierra's survival."

"I understand," she said while pulling him to get up. "All right, come on. A walk will help you feel better."

"A walk?"

"Yes," she said. "Walking always helped me, and when the others wake up, they'd never know you didn't sleep next to Dagón all night." Daniel smiled a slow smile. "They'd just think that you and I woke up early for some reason and decided to go for a walk, finding the other along the way."

Still smiling, Daniel put his glasses on and said, "Ma'am I think that just might work. I'll escort you on that walk, if you'll have me."

"But of course, good sir. Come! Let us go!"

The two of them exited the tent and walked past Dagón's deathly silent tent and Kate and John's rustling one on their way to walk in the woods.

* * *

"I don't know what the hell's happening to me," Daniel sighed half an hour later as he and Alex walked around. "I mean, I'm supposed to be the Preserver, but I don't know what to do. The Sage has prophesized many very terrible things for me to go through, and now what I know about it, I'm not sure I want to be the Preserver."

"I know. I was like that my first time with the Sage." The Major laughed bitterly. "It's still that way now. She has experience, however. She divulges enough of your future to affect the decisions you make. You need to go through the experiences she has told you, but you will gain knowledge and wisdom from them and you'll be a better person because of it."

"Yes, but I don't know what to do about it _now_!" Daniel sat down heavily on a giant stone on the edge of a large pond. The sun was beginning to rise and the water began to turn golden in the light. Picking up a stone, he skipped it across the water, then looked over at Alex, who was sitting on another big rock next to him. "Have you ever felt like this? Like you don't know what you're supposed to do, but have the feeling that you should?"

Alex nodded. "Lately, yes, I have."

The linguist shook his head, putting it in his hands. "I don't know what to do anymore. I feel like the General is relying too heavily on me, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do!"

Alex got up from the rock she had been sitting on and crouched next to Daniel, wrapping her arms around him. "I'm here for you," she said.

"I know," he whispered and hugged her back. Being in the comfort of her arms, Daniel felt better, like he didn't really need an idea of what he needed to do as long as Alex was with him. It never occurred to him to stop showing what others would call weakness before this woman, and he felt like he could confess anything to her, like he could just be himself and not the prophesized Preserver when she was with him.

With his eyes closed, he rested his head on the Major's shoulder as he pulled her to him. Concentrating for a minute, he located where everyone was, making sure that the secrets he and the Major had stay hidden until the right time. No one was around them, Dagón still in Monileek, and Kate and John—well…still in their tent.

"What are you seeing?" Alex asked, sensing he was having a vision.

"Well, no one's out and about at all, yet," he said with a hint of a smile. "And John and Kate are still in their tent…"

Alex snorted. "You didn't—!"

"No," he said with a devilish smile. "I didn't go into much detail, just where their body signatures were… They're both in their tent…together."

Alex broke into huge fit of giggling, Daniel laughing next to her. Falling further into his arms, she hung on him, laughing until she cried.

"Oh! That's the funniest thing I've heard in a very long time!" she crowed. "Thanks, I needed that!"

"So did I," he said, sighing, his stomach hurting from laughing so hard. Smiling, both turned to see the sun rise fully over the horizon, bathing everything golden and orange in its morning light.

"It's beautiful," Alex breathed. "It's as good as the last one we saw on the other planet."

"Yeah. Too bad no one else's here to enjoy it…"

"Yeah," she agreed and they both became silent, just content to watch the sun begin to rise with no interruptions.

A few minutes later, Alex got up, grabbing his hands and pulling him with her. "Come on. Let's go wake up those lovebirds and our alien. We need to get back home, but we also need to come up with a treaty to become allies with the Olympians. You'll be good for that, you know."

"Oh, yeah. Thanks. It'll be interesting, though…" Daniel then offered Alex his arm and they walked back to the camp together, trying to think of what Kate and John would do when they knocked on their tent's door.


	30. Agreements

Chapter 29 – Agreements 

"The meeting has been called to order!" Flahari said loudly over the hum of people murmuring around the low table in the huge meeting tent that had been erected just for the purpose of the treaty. The new king was an outgoing, intelligent man named Orion. He seemed to know what he was doing, and was a good choice for king.

The table was long, but crowded with people. The king and Flahari sat on opposite sides of the table. GC-1 was seated towards Flahari, while some other noblemen—who appeared to be advisors—sat nearer the king.

"Dr. Daniel Matthewson," Flahari continued, "would you please state what your government has sent you here to talk to us about?"

Daniel, surprised that Flahari had called on him instead of John, cleared his throat nervously, glanced at John, and then honored the king with a deep nod.

"Well," the linguist began, trying to find the right words, "we oppose the Androidian gods and goddesses as much as you do—" there was a moment of dark muttering from the noble's side of the table, "—and so we would like to form an alliance with your world so that we may trade different technologies and have your help for when the huge battle will be fought."

"But we are still waiting for the Preserver to come. When he has, then we will fight; not before that time shall we take up arms and help in battle." The king had a pleasant, baritone voice that boomed when he spoke. As he said that, the linguist's heart leaped, thinking about how many people knew about the myth that he didn't. The linguist knew he needed to tell them the truth. Looking down at his ceremonial tunic and shirt, Daniel knew what he must do.

Getting up from the table and lifting his shirt and tunic to expose his jewel, he said, "Excuse me, my king but…I _am _the Preserver."

The entire front side of the table gasped in awe and uncertainty as they saw his red jewel flicker in the rays of the morning sun. "You have seen him now," Daniel continued. "Will you ally yourselves with us so that we may fight alongside the other and crush the Androidians?"

The king thought for a moment; a moment where Daniel took the time to get his shirt and tunic back into place. As he sat down, he looked expectantly at the king. After a moment or two of silence, Orion looked directly at Daniel with a slight smile on his face.

"It is with great honor and privilege that I accept your offer and become an ally to the greatest warrior of all time. I will sign your treaty, and you all shall have permanent places here for which you can come to any time you wish." The king took the pen Daniel offered him and signed the paper. "We will fight willingly against the Androidians with you, O Preserver."

"Thank you," the linguist replied and was distracted by something flying overhead. "What was that?" he asked.

The king nodded slightly, and gestured for everyone to remain in his or her seats. "That was a switchblade ship. When Zeus and Pollux controlled our land, they suppressed the knowledge we originally had so that we wouldn't rebel against them. They took our way of life two hundred years less advanced than we originally were and they also took some of our technology for their own use. Now that both are gone, we are free to remember what we had first made before and we are allowed to make them."

"You're capable of flight?" John asked, speaking for the first time in the whole meeting.

"Yes, but on a much smaller level—we cannot leave our planet as of yet. Zeus has suppressed our technology, you know, and so we're remembering slowly. We were almost at a level where we could build a weapon strong enough to take out one of the Androidian mother ships, but he completely erased that from our memories. You have our word that we will once again pursue that goal and will share it with you once we get it again."

"Thank you, O gracious king," Daniel said, nodding deeply. "We will keep in touch."

John then produced a small device that attached to the finger, somewhat like a ring, and gave it to Orion. It was silver in color with a round, emerald green stone in the middle. "This is a portable device we nicknamed an IOD," the Colonel said, giving the Iris Opening Device to the king. "We're giving you this device because you do not have a jewel in your chest, and if you do, our computer will not recognize it. When you dial our world, you need to push this button. We will know it is you and will withdraw our protective shield over the Spacegate, making it safe for you to enter. Remember to push it, however. If you do not push it, you will collide with the iris and die instantly. We need to get going now. We must continue our duties on our ship."

"Of course," both Flahari and Orion said with deep nods. "We look forward to seeing you again."

"Us, too," Daniel said, and the team walked outside into the light of the already setting sun. The treaty talk had lasted almost the entire day and both peoples were glad to have found an ally; and GC-1 was glad to be going back home again. With a wave and a smile, GC-1 headed towards the Spacegate, wanting to go return home.

* * *

"They accepted our treaty!" John excitedly said as he stepped out of the shield of the Spacegate. "Daniel needed to pull his shirt up and show his chest off to everyone, but they decided to accept!"

"Great!" Hoffman said, making a weird face about John's excitement of Daniel baring his chest. "Go get some rest. Daniel, before you go to bed, Dude would like to show you something in his 'lair.'"

"Of course, sir," Daniel said with a nod and trooped to Dude's lab, one of the few rooms he had not been in since he was reincarnated.

As he neared the room, Daniel was aware of different beeping noises coming from the room. Hesitating before knocking on the door, the linguist didn't know what to expect. The door opened almost instantaneously, making Daniel come face to face with the surfer-Captain.

"Dude!" Rick exclaimed, grinning like a maniac while wearing headphones that were blaring techno music. "C'mon in! I'm gonna show you The System Code! I think you're totally ready for it, man."

"Cool," Daniel said and followed Dude back into his room.

Inside was very different than what Daniel thought his 'lair' would look like. There were no walls to be seen anywhere. The four sides of the room were completely covered with machines, electronics, computer monitors and many more gadgets Daniel wasn't sure he knew. The ceiling and floor—where it was visible—was the standard gunmetal grey color as everything was on the ship, and there was a huge rogue monitor that gleamed a glittering black in the middle of the far wall, its screen turned on. Walking up to it, Daniel saw the red letters trickle down the screen.

"It's the Code," Daniel said, depositing his hat on a table piled high with other electronic stuff.

"It totally is, man," Dude replied, his earphones finally off his head. "I had a feeling that you were so ready to see it now. Can you read it?"

Squinting and concentrating a bit on the streams of letters falling down the screen, Daniel said, "Yes, but it's just gibberish. Even though they're all in different languages, they don't make any kind of coherent sense."

"Bummer." Rick looked substantially put-out. "Hoffman said that you'll be able to manipulate it sooner or later, right?" Daniel nodded. "Well then, I'll have to keep researching this. You know, we don't know everything there is to know about this Code. I mean, we know that it records down everything we're doing, somehow, and we think that it records what's going to happen, but we're still just speculating on it. I'll tell you when we actually find something that can help us. Maybe then you can totally get us out of the dark."

"Yes, maybe," Daniel said while yawning and nodding goodnight towards Rick, heading out the door to his room.

It was quiet as he passed the medical bay on his way down to his room. A little too quiet. Pausing for a moment and lightly using his gift, he could vaguely see that Dr. Fields and Colonel O'Brien were indeed in there, though very quiet. He could tell by their body signatures that the two were in a loving embrace and Daniel was content with that, knowing that they were happy with each other.

Continuing his path down the hallway, he finally entered the safety of his room and had taken off his grimy clothes when he thought of seeing where Alex was. Stepping into the shower, he let the hot water run down the length of his body, washing and soothing away all the aches and dirt he had picked up while on '080. As he stood there, Daniel focused a bit harder than he had with the Colonel and Doctor and saw that Alex was already asleep in her room, a look of happiness on her sleeping face. Keeping that image in his mind, Daniel smiled slightly and stepped out of the shower, feeling cleaner and happier than he ever had all day.

Dressing in his nightclothes, the linguist turned off the lights and got into bed, falling asleep with the image of the sleeping Major in his head.


	31. Something Always Goes Wrong

Chapter 30 – Something Always Goes Wrong

Two weeks passed with no disturbances, no action, and GC-1 was getting restless.

"I need to get out of this ship!" John exclaimed as he sat down at the dinner table GC-1 was sitting at. Setting his plate of food down, he looked up. "Does anyone else feel the same?"

The entire team nodded.

"Great! _Now_ what do we do?" John thought hard as he ate a forkful of mashed potatoes.

"Why don't we go back to the planet where the _Prometheus _is? We never actually got a chance to look at it and I would really like to," Daniel suggested after swallowing some of his _Whoosh_.

"Great idea!" John said, while jumping up from the table. "I'll go ask Hoffman!"

The Colonel left the mess hall.

"Grand idea, DanielMatthewson," Dagón agreed as he drank some of the special light-blue liquid that a Machiá needs to sustain itself. "It shall indeed be a relief to get off of the ship."

"Yes, it will," Daniel said and bit into some fried chicken. "Do you always get missions while you're eating? I mean, so far, we've been called to duty a few times while in the mess hall…is that normal?"

"Indeed it is," Dagón said, frowning at the cup in his hands. "And my Uilkatria loses nutrients if I leave it out."

"Uilkatria? _Uilkatria…_" Daniel thought for a second. "Uilkatria means 'liquid that sustains life.' Your _drink _loses nutrients if you don't consume it right away?"

"Very good DanielMatthewson. You are correct."

"That's strange."

The table went silent for a moment.

"What do you think the General will say?" Alex asked, saying something for the first time all dinner.

"Well—" began Dude and was interrupted by Colonel O'Brien running into the room.

"We have a go!" he excitedly said. "When we're all done eating, we can get ready and go through the 'Gate! The General wants us to stay there for a few days and just take our time. We're going to bring enough provisions with us to last about three to four days. Let's eat and get going!"

"Yes sir," the table said and they began to eat excitedly.

* * *

"Just the standard pack, Dude, but with extra rations, cooking utensils and sleeping arrangements," the Colonel called from the 'Gate Room, telling Rick a list of what they'd need.

"You got it, man!" the Captain said over the intercom. "Have a radical time there!"

"We will!" John said and started to turn to watch the Spacegate create a connection with PV3-401.

"Colonel!" General Hoffman said over the comm as the shield swirled outward and the connection was made. "Report back every day at 14:00 hours. I expect you back on time this time!"

"Yes, sir," the Colonel said with a salute and GC-1 walked into the shield of the Spacegate, traveling to the other planet with the intent of having an adventure.

The world on the other side of the Spacegate was in the middle of its night when GC-1 got there. Walking up to the ridge at the far end of the field they had tried to cross previously before getting sidetracked, the team looked down and was startled. In the place of the ship that had been below them…was a huge black spot on the ground. There were bits of wreckage in the middle of it, charred and completely destroyed.

"What the hell?" the Colonel whispered. "Tell me I'm not dreaming this! Someone _pinch_ me! **_Ow!_** Not literally, Dagón!"

"My apologies, O'Brien," the alien said, though Daniel detected a hint of a smile in Dagón's voice.

"It's not there," Daniel remarked, bewildered and horrified that someone had blown up humanity's most priceless ship. "Did anyone take extensive pictures?"

"GC-3 did. We'll get them for you. Their linguist hasn't been able to figure anything out." Alex looked at him with outrage in her eyes; not directed at him, he knew, but at the species who had destroyed the _Prometheus_.

"Who would obliterate such a vessel?" Dagón asked, clearly not happy about it.

"Them!" John shouted while pointing at three small ships rising from a crater a distance away from the team. "Androidian War Orbiters! Everyone, back to the 'Gate! _Now!_"

The team ran the distance back to the Spacegate as fast as they possibly could.

Daniel, who was out in front, dialed home as the others caught up. Just as the 'Gate connected, however, John suddenly stopped and turned around, Dagón stopping behind him. Closing his eyes, John raised a hand and appeared to concentrate. One of the plasma blasts that had been fired directly at them flew straight into his hand, absorbed.

Daniel and Dagón were witnessing the Colonel use one of his gifts.

Then, amazingly, one of the War Orbiters disappeared out of thin air, and the Colonel collapsed, Dagón catching him before he fell. The alien then hauled John into the shield to safety, pushing his jewel in the process.

"Come on, Alex!" Daniel yelled in dread as he ran towards the Major, who had tripped. Getting her up, they both began running again. Right behind them the two remaining War Orbiters gained; they were less than a hundred feet away, firing plasma at the two. Running became very dangerous as the small ships began firing at the Major and linguist. Dodging plasma bolts, they jumped through the Spacegate just as the Orbiter fired, hitting the 'Gate.

Reaching the other side of the Spacegate connection, Daniel was hurled out of the shield and landed roughly on something cold, his leg and ribs hurting immensely on impact. Beside him landed Alex…and that was the last thing that he remembered before the engulfing blackness.

* * *

"We need a med team to the 'Gate Room immediately!" Hoffman yelled over the communications system as he watched John and Dagón come flying out of the Spacegate, hitting the ramp with high speed from high up. The Spacegate, without warning, began to spark and smoke. GC-1 had come back half and hour after they had left, and they had brought hell's fury with them.

"Sir, we're experiencing a total overload of the power grid! I'm turning power off, dude! This could totally ruin the Spacegate and our sample of Faneocxil!" Dude got up off of his chair and ran to throw a switch. The sparking Spacegate stopped and the entire thing seemed to sag a bit without the usual power coursing through its wires.

Making sure that the Spacegate wasn't going to blow up, Hoffman ran down the spiral steps to the 'Gate Room level, Dude following as quickly as he could. Reaching the bottom before the medics, Dude took the unconscious John into his arms, trying to check for vitals.

"Dagón! Are you all right?" Hoffman asked, putting a hand on Dagón's shoulder.

"I am," the alien said, though his face was twisted in pain. Helping the alien up, Hoffman could see that his arm was hanging at his side at an unnatural angle.

"No, Dagón, you're not! Your arm's broken. We need to get you to the infirmary! Let's go!"

With that, Dagón and Dude left for the medical bay, a medical team bringing John on a stretcher.

Hoffman, staying where he was, went to talk to Lieutenant Rogers, who had began working on the Spacegate, trying to determine what went wrong.

"So far, sir," Rogers said while putting his hardhat on, "all we can see is the breakers are literally melted together and the power Orb, the Orb that protects our Faneocxil, is damaged. Our 'Gate won't be operational for a good 24 hours or so, sir. We're going to work through the night, but that's as little time as we can get this done."

The General nodded grimly. "Get going on it. You have 24 hours."

"Yes, sir!" Rogers said and went back to work, commandeering his group of ten mechanics.

Hoffman left the scene of the disaster to go to the medical bay.

* * *

"Where're Daniel and Major Croft, son?" the General asked Dagón, who was sitting on a hospital bed with a splint and sling on his arm.

"They were right behind us, General," Dagón said, his voice calm and not betraying the worry he was feeling inside and the physical pain he felt outside. "I do not know what happened to them. Dial back to the planet. I will go search for them."

"I'm afraid that won't happen for a day or so, Dagón. Our Spacegate was damaged while you were traveling. Once you reintegrated, it began to overload and it now needs repair.

"What happened when you went through the Spacegate?"

Dagón looked at the General with the gravest of expressions. "We had reached the other side and were intent on going to the _Prometheus _to study it. When we arrived at the position where we could observe it below a ridge, it was, indeed, not there. It had been destroyed. Almost nothing remained.

"Then, from a crater in the ground, arose three Androidian War Orbiters…the ones similar to those Goa'uld Death Gliders we have heard DanielMatthewson talk about. They began to fire and we commenced to run. Daniel got to the DOC first, and so dialed here. O'Brien and I were the first ones from GC-1 to enter the shield—amidst the chaos I believe I pressed my jewel. Daniel then, I trust, stayed behind until Major Croft got through. They couldn't have been a minute behind us. I request permission for a probe to be sent back to PV3-401."

"As soon as the Spacegate's fixed, Dagón, we will. We will, indeed…"


	32. Stranded

Chapter 31 – Stranded 

Major Alexandra Croft awoke to find herself extremely cold. Keeping her eyes closed because of a headache, she thought about telling Hoffman to turn the heat up in the SGB. Thinking better, she put her hands up to her head and healed her headache, opening her eyes to total darkness.

_What the _hell she asked herself. _Where are we?_

Sitting up, she looked around, astonished to find herself in a sort of cave; a cave made entirely of ice. Before her loomed a Spacegate…and the DOC, unfortunately, was nowhere to be found. Blinking a few times to try to make her eyes adjust to the gloom, she cautiously got up, only to slip back down to the ground again in a dizzy state.

Staying seated on the ground this time, Alexandra began to wonder where she was. All of a sudden, however, a wounded groan came from a few feet away from her. Not wanting to fall again, Alex crawled over in the direction of the groan, lighting a flashlight in the process. Pointing the beam of light forward, it fell on another body—one that was badly injured.

"Oh, _God_," she heard the body say, and the Major knew for certain then that it was Daniel.

"Daniel!" she cried softly. "You're a mess!"

"Thanks," he managed to get out, gasping from pain.

Inching closer to him, she placed a hand on his arm and concentrated. "Oh my God, Daniel! Your leg is broken in two places, and you're bleeding internally—two ribs are cracked, as well—you've a punctured lung… If you'll just allow me to heal you…"

"No!" Daniel tried to sit up, but the pain was too much. Crying out, he fell back to the ground and lied there until he could speak again, gasping for breath. "I will not allow that. You need your strength. If I die, you're much more capable of getting yourself out of here than if I was on my own. Could you try to splint it or something?"

"Yes, I could. But it would be a lot easier if I just healed you; then that way I—"

"Alex, look at me," Daniel said forcibly, interrupting the Major's explanation. She looked down and their eyes locked. "I won't allow you to heal me. Not now. You know how to do many more things for getting back home than I could ever learn now. If you fall asleep, I'd have to worry about you not being able to communicate with me. At least this way, I'm conscious and can talk to you over our comms so you don't have to worry about going away from me."

Clearly not liking the idea but seeing the common sense of it, Alex gave in to his explanation and got out the supplies to make a splint from her bag.

"It's a good thing Colonel O'Brien had Dude put so much stuff in here," she said as she prepared her supplies. "I can't find the DOC—it's not by the Spacegate. I'll need to find it before we can dial home."

"Do you know how much supplies we have?" he asked, needing something to get his mind off of the pain he was experiencing.

"Yes. Each of us has at least enough rations to last three days, but we can stretch that out if we need to. We also have enough drinking water as we can possibly consume here," she said while indicating the cave, her breath forming puffy clouds around her head.

"Ice," Daniel remarked, his teeth chattering from the cold.

"Yes," she said, then scooted over to where his broken leg was laying. "All right, this is going to hurt."

"I know, I know…just get it over with!"

"Okay." Looking down at the new device in front of her, she placed the two flat metal rods on either side of Daniel's leg.

"Is this your first broken bone?" she asked, wanting to keep his mind off of what she was doing.

"Yes," he gasped out as she lifted his broken leg and placed a special material under it with the splint. "Not unless you count a fractured skull…"

"How'd you get that?" she asked, curious now.

"I was breaking up a fight at the University I taught at. Some guys were fighting; it was getting bloody, and was starting to hurt innocent bystanders so I just dove into the middle of it. One of them, I found out after I regained consciousness, had a baseball bat and swung at the other kid and missed, hitting me. I was in the hospital for a few days while the new Newflesh patches healed it."

"Really? Those Newflesh patches are supposed to speed the healing process by more than half! I'm surprised they used one on you, they're so expensive… Okay, Daniel, this is gonna hurt."

"Just do it!" he ordered and she put the two ends of the material together. Right as they touched, they melded together and constricted, making the splint rigid and molded to the linguist's leg. Though this method of creating a splint worked very effectively, Daniel still cried out in pain.

"You wouldn't think cracked bone digging into sensitive nerves would hurt so much," he wheezed out, "but it does…it does."

"I think it's done, Daniel," Major Croft said.

"Good. Help me up."

"But, Daniel!" she protested. "You should stay here and rest. You need to heal!" Alex stood her ground this time, knowing what was best for him.

"Alex, my entire backside is freezing to the ground, and you said I was bleeding internally. That cannot be good anyway, so I think moving me is a lot better than me becoming one with the frozen ground."

Reluctantly, Alex relented again, and they eventually got him off the ground. Even though the splint was designed to hold up the leg, no matter how badly it was broken, Daniel still needed support from Alex as they hobbled around the cave, exploring and looking for a likely spot the DOC could be hidden.

"You know," Daniel said as they walked around, trying to get his mind off of the shooting pains he was getting every time he stepped down, "a new coat of paint, a fireplace, some curtains over there…and this place could look a lot like home."

Alex snorted, laughing at what he said.

"No! Really! Or you could just paint this entire thing gunmetal grey, make a compartment twenty feet above ground and put some transparent ice there and you have the SGB."

"Yeah, really," Alex said and they continued on their exploration.

Half an hour passed by, and both Alex and Daniel had found at least one likely spot the Dial-Out Computer could be hidden in the ice.

"You're going to stay here, now," Alex said after they had explored most of the cave. "You're under doctor's orders now, and I say that you should rest." Daniel didn't look happy, sitting on one of the blankets they had for sleeping. But he did as he was told, since he was the one who was supposed to cook. "I'm going over there to that ice block. I think I see something inside it, so I'm going to try to get to it."

The linguist nodded. "And if it isn't there, we can melt the chopped ice for water."

"Exactly," the Major said. "Call me when you're ready."

"Of course," he said, and she reluctantly left Daniel, trying to find the one thing that would allow them to get out of this frozen prison and Daniel to a doctor.

* * *

"What is the status of the repairs?" Dagón asked as he walked around the compound, his arm still in a sling.

"We're moving as fast as we can, sir," Rogers responded, his mechanic's hard hat dented and his skin dirty. "It's going to take a while, even if we work as fast as humanly possible. We have at least another 12 hours before it can be even remotely close to up and running, and then we need to run some tests to see if it actually can run."

"And cannot we use the other two Spacegates we have in our possession?"

"That's just not gonna happen, dude," Rick said grimly as he walked into the room, putting a hand on the alien's shoulder. "I've talked to the Generals on the other two ships. They cannot spare any GC teams to go look for them. All of them are either off-world or busy doing something _tan importante _that they couldn't spare any of them, even to help the best team we have. It seems like we'll have to totally wait for the repairs to be done."

"I see," the alien said, disappointed at the news. "I shall go see how Colonel O'Brien is doing."

"Radical," the Captain replied. "Tell me what's up with him. I gotta go run some more diagnostics on the Spacegate."

"Indeed, I shall," Dagón replied and left for the medical bay.

* * *

John awoke to find himself looking into the calm but frowning face of Dagón staring down at him.

"Dagón," the Colonel stated weakly, his eyes blinking to adjust to the bright light above him, his mind seeming to swim in fog, as he couldn't think straight.

"DanielMatthewson and Major Croft did not follow us through the Spacegate," the alien said, making John's worst nightmares come alive as his mind struggled to process the news.

"They didn't?" he managed to get out before his voice cracked and he needed to cough. "How? Why?"

"That we do not know. After we exited the Spacegate, there was a huge power overload and the Spacegate was damaged. Lieutenant Rogers has been working on it around the clock with other mechanics. The breakers are melted together and the power Orb needs repairs. They started yesterday."

"Do we know where Alex and Daniel are?" John's mind was thinking better now, but things were still a little fuzzy.

"We do not," the alien said grimly. "We solely know that they aren't here."

"Shit," the Colonel said under his breath. "Daniel's still new to all of this!"

"He has been with us for two months, O'Brien, and has gone through many incidents. He'll be fine; he also has Major Croft with him, we think. They appear to be a formidable team and could survive for a long period of time. They are also resourceful, as well, and so would have the necessary skills to get along."

"I guess you're right. How long have I been out? How long have you been waiting here?"

"You have been unconscious for nigh twenty-four hours, O'Brien. You fell and hit your head quite hard. The repairs must be close to being done currently."

"So I've noticed." John suddenly sat bolt upright. "I gotta go see the General. Dagón, come on; help me up."

"Are you sure that is wise?"

"I don't care if it is, or isn't! I just thought of something that we need to tell him of!"

The alien nodded. "As you wish," he said and unhooked the Colonel from his heart monitor and IV drip while helping him up. They then made their way down to the General's office, John worrying about Daniel and Alexandra.

* * *

"Soup's on," Daniel said into his comm as the food before him over a Bunsen burner-like flame boiled and smelled good.

"Great, I'll be there shortly," he heard Alex say from the other end before the transmission went dead. Fishing around cautiously in his pack, he found two Transsteel ceramic mugs to pour the soup in.

Alex arrived a minute later and Daniel handed her one of the cups.

"I didn't know you could cook," she said, looking at the soup in the cup. "This smells delicious."

"Yes, well…you know me. I love thawing and warming up pre-cooked, ready-made soup. It's to die for, you know…along with my watery ice-melted hot chocolate."

Alex smiled over the rim of her cup, amused by his sarcastic way of coping with pain. "I think we picked the right spot to find the DOC. I think I've found it, though I'm not down far enough. After we finish here, I'll need to go back."

"I'll go with you," he said. "I'm bored out of my wits here, Alex. I need something to do. I mean, how strenuous is chipping away ice with a knife? I could just sit there and chop away."

Taking another sip of the soup, Alex nodded. "All right. Though I don't like the idea, I _could_ use some help."

"Great," the linguist said and they concentrated on drinking their rapidly-cooling dinner.

* * *

"How do you think the DOC got this far away from the Spacegate?" Daniel asked as he chopped ice from the biggest block he'd ever seen.

"Well, I've been thinking about that, as well as forming theories about where John and Dagón are. I think, for the DOC, that there must've been a rain or something like that a long time ago, and it gradually pushed the DOC from the Spacegate. I think that this planet originally wasn't an ice planet, but actually had a warmer climate. It could've pushed it over here and then froze later, leaving it incased in ice."

"And about where John and Dagón are?"

"Well, they could either be on a totally different planet, or they could be on the _Karma_. When I gained consciousness, I looked around; and even though it was dark, I didn't see any other foot prints, so they cannot be here. I just hope they're home."

"Yeah," Daniel said, his voice a wheeze escaping his body before he began coughing. "I can't see John in a situation like this."

"Actually, he'd handle himself pretty well, or so I hear from Dagón. He'll just complain the entire time, but he'll pull through it."

"Really," he said. "How much farther do we have to dig?"

"Not sure. Another foot or so before the top of the DOC would be exposed. Another four feet after that to get the entire thing exposed."

"Well, that's not going to happen right now," Daniel said.

"Why not?" Alex asked, a yawn escaping her lips.

"Because, Major, we've been up for a very long time. The DOC will still be there in the morning. Let's get some sleep."

"All right," the Major said and they went back to where their supplies were, getting the thermal blankets and other warm things to settle down with for the night.

* * *

"Colonel!" Hoffman exclaimed, the surprise showing in his voice. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"I needed to talk to you, sir," John said, trying with all his strength not to collapse on Dagón. "May I sit down?"

"By all means! Please, Colonel!"

"Thank you, sir." Dagón dumped John into the chair. "Sir, we need to send a probe back to the planet."

"I know we do. Lieutenant Rogers has informed me that they are done with the repairs. If you can get to the Dialing Room, we can watch them finish the rest of the preliminary tests."

"Dagón?" the Colonel asked.

"I am here, O'Brien. I shall assist you if you wish."

"Thanks, Dagón," John said and was helped to the Dialing Room, followed closely by Hoffman.

* * *

"Sir, it's all yours, dude!" Dude said as the three entered the Dialing Room. "It's totally working again."

"Good. Dial back to PV3-401 and get a probe ready."

"Yes, dude," the Captain said and the General's orders were carried out.

"Alpha-Six encoded," Dude said as the sixth symbol was dialed into the Spacegate. "And Alpha-Seven…will not engage. It says that there is no known 'Gate, sir."

The Colonel swore again. "That means that the 'Gate was destroyed on the other end."

"Then I guess the probe cannot be sent." Joseph looked at his men. "I'm sorry."

"But, sir!"

"I'm sorry, Colonel, but we don't even know if they're still alive or not. Your mission is scrubbed."

Hoffman's heart was heavy as he gave the order to not look harder for his missing team members. He did not want to give up hope, but he didn't even know if it would be worth looking for them, as they had no where to bury them if they did.

There was a grim moment of silence as they all thought of both Daniel and Alex.

"Sir?" Dude asked, a hopeful look on his face. "I was going through the databases while the totally radical dude here," he gestured towards the Colonel, "was trapped on the wall. I stumbled upon a place in the Guardia database that said that if a Stargate, as well as a Spacegate, gets an extra amount of power, whether it be from an extra power source or a blast from a weapon, the connection between the two 'Gates is disconnected. _But_…that connection cannot just disappear. The energy it has from the actual connection needs to be let out somewhere, and so I believe it is possible that it jumped to another 'Gate somewhere."

"Is that possible?" The Colonel sounded hopeful, as well.

"It's necessary," the Captain said, walking over to a clear map in the middle of the room—the one that depicted where all the known Spacegates were. The other three walked over to it, as well.

It was a square of Transsteel with huge white-frosted circles on it, one inside the other, depicting longitude and latitude lines for the entire universe around Tierra. There were also lines shooting out in even intervals from the center of the circles—the place that was supposed to be Tierra, and the three ships above it. There were also little dots all around the rings, symbolizing where a planet was—the ones that lit up were the ones that GC-1 knew had Spacegates on them.

"Sir," Rick said, while pointing to the planet that showed where PV3-401 was, an unlit circle now that the 'Gate wouldn't function, "if they're not here, and we know they're not here—" he pointed at the middle of the entire map, indicating Tierra, "—they must be somewhere between these two planets."

"It is indeed possible," Dagón said, his voice showing a little happiness. "As Chief Vizier for Hades, I once overheard him say such a thing when this happened to one of his battalions. They were being fired at and half of them weren't seen again. He speculated that this happened, though he never bothered to search for them."

The General nodded. "So they're alive somewhere?"

"Possibly, General," the Colonel chimed in. "But they could be badly injured. I mean, with the force that I flew out of the Spacegate, I don't even remember hitting the ramp, not even what happened while I was _in_ the Spacegate's connection for that matter. They could be badly injured. We should try to find them. We could send probes out to these different planets and look. Since they're probably hurt, we wouldn't have to look far from the Spacegate."

"I agree. O'Brien does have a point," Dagón said, an eyebrow raised. "And we could look at the data we collected from each planet to determine the ones that aren't able to sustain life. If they indeed went to those planets, then they'd be dead and there's no point in looking for them."

The General nodded. "You have a go. I want a list of planets that are habitable as soon as possible. We can start with the probes as soon as you get them done."

"Thank you, General," the Colonel said, and he and Dagón went to the computer room to begin their work, Dagón supporting John all the way.


	33. Dreams and Determination

Chapter 32 – Dreams and Determination

Daniel awoke to find the Major curled up beside him, their two blankets combined.

"Major?" Daniel asked, his voice raspy.

"I'm sorry, Daniel, but the temperature has dropped considerably…we wouldn't make it through the night if we don't combine our body heat."

"No, that's okay. It's just that it gets even harder to breathe if your arm's pushing down on my broken ribs…"

"Oh, my God! I'm sorry!" Alex moved her arm from where it had crossed his chest down farther so that it rested on his stomach.

"That's better," he said, and his stomach rumbled.

"Daniel?" He could hear the smile in Alex's voice.

"It was my Joltgun, I swear," he replied and, laughing, they fell back asleep.

* * *

Daniel felt cold as he woke up again from a half-sleep. He also felt pain from his leg and ribs, but it was mostly the cold that was bothering him. Aware again of the Major's arm around his stomach, he heard her sigh slightly and shift in her sleep, pulling herself a bit closer to him as she pulled the blanket farther upward. Looking down at her, Daniel once again experienced the weird feeling in his stomach and he hoped her arm would stay where it was. Wondering why he felt the way he did from Alexandra's arm around him, Daniel drifted back into a troubled sleep. 

It was night outside, but he was inside a golden-lit room with a huge ceiling and sweeping columns that gave one a feeling of worthlessness and smallness. Looking around, he saw at the back of the room a huge lotus flower like the ones they had back in Egypt—the flowers that, according to Egyptian mythology, were to have grown from the new land and spawned the sun god Ra.

Walking up to it, he inspected it and saw a most peculiar sight. Even as he saw all the proper Egyptian decorations for the lotus, he also began to see different decorations that were from the Greek civilization, or so that was how Daniel had learned in school.

_How strange, _Daniel thought, running his hand over an Egyptian hieroglyph. _Greek and Egyptian art has never been seen before together like this. I wonder if it's a mistake_. Looking at a set of hieroglyphics more closely, he quickly translated it.

"'_Made for the use and prosperity of Khem, the Ushebti,'_" Daniel muttered. "Khem was what the Ancient Egyptians on Earth called their land, Egypt. Ushebti translates to 'answerer' and was a carved wooden figurine that would be in the pharaoh's burial chamber to do the work for him in the afterlife."

Trying to make sense if it all, Daniel translated the crude Greek carved into the lotus next to the Egyptian. "Conquered and taken for use by the…hmm. Dunno what that symbol is. Must be…ah, that is what I thought. Conquered and taken for use by the _Androidians_. Of course…why didn't I think of that in the first place?"

Starting to explore some more, he let down his guard a little. Suddenly, just as he touched another cartouche, this one in the center of the two outer petals, the lotus began to glow slightly. Stepping away from it, Daniel watched in amazement as the petals began to unfold one by one, revealing a cavity that was big enough to hold two people inside it.

"Whoa," Daniel muttered, looking inside of it. It was gold, just like the room, but there were also holes spaced around in it where very dark glass had been inlayed. Straining to look in the glass, Daniel could see nothing.

Stepping into the lotus for a better view, Daniel found a scarab button in the inside panel of the lotus. Wondering what it could be, he pushed it, and the lotus began to seal it petals, locking him inside.

"Get me out of here!" he yelled while sitting up, only to fall back down again, grimacing at the pain in his ribs.

"Daniel, are you all right? What is it?" Alex asked in alarm from beside him, raising her head to lean on his shoulder, pulling her arm tighter around him. "Was it a nightmare?"

"I think it was a vision," Daniel gasped while trying to recall every slight detail, "only it was different than how I saw you and Zeus. It was of a giant flower...an Egyptian lotus blossom."

Alex gasped. "What exactly did you see?" she asked.

"A lotus flower that was a foot taller than I am was before me, with both Egyptian and Greek inscriptions on it. I was exploring it and I touched a cartouche on it. The petals of the flower then unfolded and I stepped into it. It closed when I pushed a scarab button on the inside. I was trapped, and that's the last thing I remember." Daniel was shaken as he retold of what he had saw. Alex could sense that, and held onto his arm in a reassuring manner. It worked for him.

"What you saw Daniel, is an Androidian device, called the Lotus…it is similar to the old Goa'uld sarcophagus. Even if you are close to death, it can revive you within a certain time period if used properly—death, however, it cannot repair unless you are a high-ranking Androidian; then, within a period of two days can you be revived from death. The Androidians use it to keep renewing their bodies and symbiotes—that's how they're able to have lived for over a thousand or so years.

"It works as an energy charge that stimulates the body's ability to heal itself at an even more rapid rate, giving the user virtual immortality. But, after a long while of using it, the user eventually goes insane, as we have found—which explains the Androidian gods and goddesses. It's best if you don't use it unless the need is very dire."

"Whoa," Daniel muttered as he looked down at her. "That's pretty intense stuff."

"Yes it is. Try to get more rest. Your body needs a lot if you're not going to let me heal you."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, and drifted off in a semi-slumber once again.

* * *

The Spacegate shut off as the probe once again rolled down the ramp. Dude, who had been controlling it, slammed the controller down on the table in frustration. 

"Dudes, I'm not liking this!" he yelled as he crossed yet another planet off of the long lists of potential planets where Daniel and Alex could be. "We have only three more planets!"

"Damn," John said as he snatched the list from the Captain. "Let's hope they're on one of the three."

"Yes, sir, totally. But what if they're on one of the other planets?"

"Then let us all hope that they are not," Dagón said, pulling his long hair back into a ponytail.

"Yeah," the other two men agreed and started dialing out to another planet again, hoping that that would be the one where Daniel and Alex would be.

* * *

Daniel awoke again to the sound of chipping ice and the absence of a certain Major next to him. Carefully easing himself into a sitting position, the linguist looked over to where the Major was supposed to be and couldn't see her. Putting his hand up to his comm, he turned the volume up again and pushed the button. 

"Alex?" he asked in a raspy voice.

There came no reply, but only a yelp of surprise from where she was. There was a moment or two of silence and Alex showed up next to Daniel, a worried expression on her face.

"What is it, Daniel?"

Daniel tried to hide a smile. "I was just wondering where you were and wanted to know if you wanted pancakes or waffles this morning."

Alex smiled. "Pancakes? Waffles? Right. I think I'm so hungry, however, that whatever you cook'll be wonderful."

"Ah. Okay. You doubt my skills as a gourmet chef? Oh, all right…so do I. I'll just get started." Daniel began to rifle through the backpack they had filled with all their food rations.

"I'll go back to chopping ice with my trusty knife, if you'll allow me. I'm almost to the dialing face." Alex seemed impatient, but Daniel could see that she'd stay with him if he wanted her to. Smiling, he gestured in the direction where the DOC was.

"Go ahead. I'll call you when your gourmet meal's done."

"Oh, yes…that'd be very nice," she said with a laugh and went back to what she had been doing.

The chipping noise resumed as Daniel started the flame to cook their food with. He knew there were some biscuits in the food supply with sausages and some dried fruit. The linguist also knew that they had some _Whoosh_ with them, as well, which would be a good thing to keep them going until they had the DOC free of its ice prison.

Twenty minutes later, the aroma of cooking food brought Alex back to Daniel without being called.

"Oh, that smells good!" she exclaimed as Daniel looked up at her, a shiver running down his body.

"I'm so cold," he said, his teeth beginning to chatter as he began to dish out the food. "I have two thermal blankets on, but it's still so cold…"

"Daniel, you have major interior damage. The blood loss from that is draining your life. You're dying, Daniel, and I won't live with myself if you do because there's something I can do that can stop it now."

"I know, I know…but I don't want you to. Now let's eat. I'll help you dig out the DOC when we're done."

Not bothering to argue, Alex sat next to Daniel and they ate their breakfast in a contemplative silence.

* * *

"Almost there," Alex grunted as she helped Daniel walk towards the DOC, his leg giving out on him while he dragged all of their supplies behind them; they wanted to stay closer to the Dial-Out Computer. 

"Here we go," Daniel said and sank to the ground, his torso leaning against the DOC, his knife poised to chop. "Thanks," he said while looking up at Alex and they began to chip away the ice little by little.

Their task was almost done. The DOC was almost excavated, and Daniel could feel his energy draining even faster now. But, as stubborn as he was, he kept going, trying to help Alex in any way he could. Looking down at his chest, he thought he saw a hint of blood, but wasn't sure in the dim light. Trying to look even closer, Alex let out an elated yell.

"We did it! We did it, Daniel! It's uncovered! All we have to do is dial home!"

"That's great. Start dialing," the linguist said and started coughing raggedly, blood spraying from his lips. Trying to hide the blood before she saw it, Daniel covered his mouth and turned away, coughing even more. Looking at him with a worried expression, she nodded and began to put in the symbols for the _Karma_.

"Five…where's that symbol? Ah, there it is. Okay, six…"

Daniel, his coughing fit over, lay on his stomach and looked around the corner to where he could faintly see the Spacegate. The side he saw, he could see the symbols reluctantly light up on the middle spinning ring as the other 'room' lit up briefly, signifying that the Spacegate was scanning the symbols.

"Here it goes," he heard Alex say and heard her press the middle Orb with their home symbol in it. In the other room, he heard the Spacegate begin to vibrate violently, and he heard huge crashing noises come from there. Huge chunks of ice had fallen and blocked their way

Alex, not caring what happened to herself, rushed to a place where she could see what was happening and cried out.

"Damn it!" she screamed, pounding the ice wall with her fist. "Damn it! Why does this have to happen?"

"I don't know," Daniel said, and began coughing again. "I guess we're stuck here for a while." The puddle of blood beneath his head and hands grew larger every time he coughed. Alex crouched down before him and made him look into her eyes.

"Daniel, I don't care about what you're going to say to me. We're stuck here and there's nothing we can do about it. You're also dying; I know that as a fact. And as you keep getting worse and worse, my ability to heal you gets fainter and fainter. I'm healing you now, Daniel, before I lose you."

"But—" Daniel tried to say, but Alex cut him off.

"Daniel, we both have a greater chance of surviving here if we're _together_—and don't give me that crap that if you die, then I'll have more supplies. I'm healing you, and that's that!"

Daniel looked deeper into her eyes and knew she meant it and that nothing was going to stop her. Nodding, Daniel flopped backwards onto his back and sighed, defeated. "Go ahead," he said, feeling even more drained by those two words alone.

Looking down at him, Alex placed a hand lightly on his chest and another one on his broken leg and sat there, closing her eyes and regulating her breathing.

At first, Daniel felt nothing; but, then there was a warm tingling feeling rushing all over from where her hands touched him. His entire body became hot, almost burning, as if a fever had infected him suddenly. Then, as quickly as it started, it stopped, and Daniel opened his eyes.

Above him, Alex was smiling with her eyes partially open. "It's done," she said, and fell into his arms, physically and mentally drained beyond the breaking point—asleep before he caught her. Daniel, feeling as if nothing had happened to him in the first place, sat up with ease for the first time and gathered the Major into his arms, trying to keep her warm and safe. Pulling a thermal blanket around and under them, Daniel just sat there, holding Alex, thankful that she was with him and was able to heal him. Now, he knew, he needed to return the favor.


	34. MIA No More

Chapter 33 – MIA No More

John stared wide-eyed at the map before him. He had dimmed every little light that represented a planet and they still hadn't found anything. On the uninhabitable planets, the General had let them send probes to look for the two officially Missing In Action team members—which had turned up nothing, either.

Putting his head into his hands, the Colonel blinked slowly and yawned, having been searching nonstop for more than 24 hours. There was a sudden knock on the door, and the person outside didn't wait for the Colonel to respond before entering. It was Kate.

"Here, John, have some _Whoosh_. It'll make you feel not as tired."

"Thanks," he said as he kissed her. "I think I'm missing something here! I mean, there's gotta be a planet we're missing!"

"Don't worry. You'll figure it out."

"I probably won't, though. I mean, I'm here in The System because I'm responsible and can make decisions based on my team and the situation. Alex should to be here to figure it out…she's both the mechanic and the astrophysicist; but, alas, she is the one missing. I'm not as smart as all of you."

"John!" Kate said, pushing his shoulder. "Why do you do this to yourself?"

"Well, I—"

A klaxon began blaring, indicating that the Spacegate had started to suddenly dial in from off-world. Kate ran to the computers, John right behind her, bringing his glass of _Whoosh_ with him, which he set on a counter.

"Alpha-Six encoded," Dude said over his comm, having run into the room before everyone else had and gotten to his station. "Alpha-Seven…whoa, that's weird."

The seventh Alpha didn't lock, but the entire Spacegate, and ship for that matter, began to vibrate violently. As suddenly as it began, it stopped, and the Spacegate's dialing lights shut off.

"What's happening?" the General demanded as he walked into the Dialing Room, his robe and pajamas on.

John looked over at Joseph, a light smile on his face. "Sir, we ruled out a world we shouldn't have," he said and walked rapidly back to the map he had been studying earlier. "Here," he said and pointed to the point in the exact middle—the planet that represented Tierra.

"What're you saying?" Hoffman demanded again, cranky from lack of sleep and intense worrying about his two MIA operatives.

"We've never explored Tierra fully because of its ice storms and the Ice Age. What if there's another 'Gate on Tierra that we don't know about? I mean, you guys all talk about how the connection jumped to another, so what if it jumped to one on Tierra?"

"Sir, dude, it's totally possible!" Captain Dude chimed in, seeing the logic. "Remember when we first found the Spacegates and Stargates? Whenever we dialed out or someone dialed in, they used to vibrate a whole lot. That's what I think happened here, even though now we have special holders that cushion it and absorb the shocks.

"Also, dude-man-sir, back on Old Earth, when you call yourself on your phone, what always happened?" He asked it while looking at Dagón. Realizing his mistake, he turned away from the confused alien while saying, "Wrong person." Then, looking at the General, he asked the question again. "What happens when you call yourself on the phone?"

"Well, I-I've never called myself before," the General confessed.

"Well, if you'd do that, sir, you'd get a busy signal. What if that happened to Alex and Daniel? I mean, they could totally have a different symbol for the point of origin, but it would be the same point, no matter what it was designated, and that isn't possible to do—just like we can't 'Gate to the two other SGB ships. It's a possibility, sir."

The General nodded. "Look at the seismometers on Tierra. See if any vibrating activity took place."

"Yes, sir," Dude and John said and they went over to a computer, the General and doctor crowding around behind them.

Dude began to type furiously, bypassing all security codes with ease. "You know, sir, this totally isn't supposed to be possible without authorization," Dude said as he typed, windows popping up and disappearing faster than anyone could blink.

The General folded his arms and nodded. "I know. That's why we have you, Dude. That's also why I'm turning the other way so I don't actually see you do it."

Turning around to grin at the General, the Captain saw Dagón walking towards them and waved. "There ya are dude! I was wondering where you were."

"Indeed, I am here, Rick. I could not complete my Monileek for worrying about DanielMatthewson and Major Croft."

"Sorry to hear that, my alien man. Almost there, sir," the hacker added, typing even faster now. Suddenly, a window popped up with the information coming from the seismometers down on Tierra, where the humans in The System had their base. "We're totally in!"

"Good." The General seemed relieved. "We can't be detected messing with this, right?"

"No sir. It believes that I'm an authorized member of its personnel. We'll have no problem."

"Good. Find what we need."

"Yes, sir," Dude said and he and John began to read.

* * *

The hours ticked by before Alex stirred. Opening her eyes slightly, she saw a familiar face above her and slightly smiled. "Daniel?" she asked, her voice weak.

"I'm here," the handsome face said, and she smiled wider, falling asleep again.

Daniel looked down at her, feeling the familiar strange sensation in the pit of his stomach again as he held her close. He had only held her this close twice—once when she was hurt, the other when they had kissed.

Remembering that memory of a few weeks before, he smiled at the feelings he had experienced and looked down at the woman he had shared them with. Wondering if she thought of him differently than just a friend, he leaned down and kissed her softly, gently on her lips. At that moment, he realized for the first time that he thought of Alex as a closer friend, and the weird feeling in his stomach was actually a like so strong for her that he would die to save her.

Stirring as if by cue from his kiss, Alex opened her eyes once again and smiled, shifting a bit in Daniel's arms.

"You're all right now," she said in a sleepy whisper. "How do you feel?"

"Grateful," he said and hugged her close, surprised when her arms wrapped around his neck and clung to him. "Thank you," he said into her hair as he held her to him. "I don't know what would've happened had you not healed me. I thank you for being so stubborn."

Alex began to laugh and they both fell into a fit of laughter, holding onto one another as they broke down. After a while, both just sat there in the other's arms, content just to do nothing.

"You know," Daniel said, looking down at her, "I've been reading Daniel Jackson's journals…and if I remember correctly, this is very similar to what happened to Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill when they were trapped in complete _solitudes_. O'Neill had gotten badly hurt, and their DHD—their version of a DOC—was missing in a huge thing of ice."

"What happened to them?" Alex asked, hope filling her weak voice. She was still exhausted from all that she had exerted while healing the linguist.

"The rest of SG-1 found them," Daniel said simply.

"Oh," the Major replied, and they fell into their thoughts.

"Do you think they'll find us?" Alex finally asked, breaking the companionable silence they had shared for a long time, shivering for the millionth time from the cold.

"I'm not sure," he replied. "I want to believe that they will…but then again, I'm not so sure. I mean, if they find a way to 'Gate to here, the swirling of the shield as they make the connection will melt away all of the ice that had fallen around it…but they have to find the right planet first. I'm not sure they'll be able to find us.

"I think we are to die here." Daniel understood that that was a bad thought, but he knew that if he were to die, he was happy to know that he was dying with Alex.

"I think so," she agreed solemnly. "We're blocked into this cave. We could probably make a hole to get out of here, but that would take a lot of time and we're running out of food. We need to ration it a bit stricter now that you're not injured anymore. But let's not try it now. I'm too tired."

"Then rest," he said, and pulled the blankets around them tighter, giving her more of them.

"You need to, too," she said, and he relented to her orders, laying her down and then sliding down to lie next to her after he had taken off his glasses. Facing her, he smiled slightly and felt her take his hand.

"They'll find us," Daniel murmured before sleep took them both.

* * *

"Sir! _We found one_!" Dude called from the computer. "Its timing to the vibrations we felt is to the second! It came from the other side of the planet from where the colony is."

"All right, let's go. Dagón, will you tell the pilot to get the ship there?"

"Indeed I shall, General Hoffman."

"Good. Go at it! Time lost here might make the difference between life and death of both of them!"

The ship rapidly began to descend downward, Dagón taking the General's advice. With the aid of a computer, the pilot—Tim—was able to find the place where the seismic activity had taken place and landed the ship, opening the door of the _Karma_ for the first time in a very long while. "We are here, General Hoffman," Tim said over his comm.

"Thanks, Tim. C'mon, let's go!" the General said, and he, John, Dude, and Dagón met outside to where they thought Alex and Daniel were. "Can you move the snow?" the General asked.

"Indeed, General Hoffman," the alien responded. "It will be, as you humans say, 'A piece of cake.'"

"Then go at it," John exclaimed and they watched in amazement. Dagón, crouching down, closed his eyes and extended his hands so that he was touching the ground where they thought the two were. Then, as if by magic, the snow and ice began to part from where his hands touched them and piled along the two sides, making a huge crater as they separated.

"We are nearly to our goal," Dagón grunted as he sustained his power, and the snow kept moving, Dagón determined to get to his friends.

* * *

Daniel thought he heard something above where he and Alex were, but he wasn't sure. It sounded like talking, but, while listening again, he didn't hear any more of it. Mentally shrugging, he went back to sleep again.

After a while, however, he was half-awoken again by the sound of soft voices.

"Hurry it up! They need to get back to the ship!"

"Yes sir!"

"Dude man, they're totally okay!"

"Let's get them outta here!"

Half consciously aware of the people above him, Daniel felt himself being lifted onto a kind of hospital bed. Regaining some consciousness, he weakly asked, "Sir?"

"We're here, son. You're safe." The General looked down at the man before him and smiled. "You're going back to the _Karma_."

"What about Alex?" the linguist asked.

"She's going to be fine, son. She needs rest, as do you. Go back to sleep."

"Thank you, sir," Daniel said, and fell asleep again, not remembering anything else about the trip home.

* * *

Alex awoke in the hospital bay again, not remembering anything after Daniel told her to sleep. Her heart monitor beeped in a syncopated rhythm and she could feel the bite of an IV drip in her arm. Looking around, she saw Daniel sleeping in a hospital bed to her left, though no one else was there.

"Oh," Alex moaned softly, putting a hand to her woozy head. Working to sit up, she finally reached her goal and stretched her arms over her head, sighing. She felt normal to herself, but she knew that Kate wouldn't let her out unless she deemed her ready for active duty again.

Looking around, she thought she heard voices coming from the doctor's room. Straining, she confirmed that theory and identified Kate's and a male's voice in there.

_It must be John's voice,_ Alex thought as she lay back in her bed. _Who else would talk that quiet with her behind closed doors?_

Beside her, Daniel began to laugh quietly, and she knew that he was only pretending to be asleep.

"What is it?" she asked in a whisper. "What's going on in there?"

Daniel opened his eyes and turned towards her with a smile. "They're talking about how he came up with the thought that another Spacegate could be on Tierra," he whispered back. "She's saying that he shouldn't say that he isn't as smart as he really is and that he shouldn't put himself down all the time."

He turned his head to face the ceiling again and closed his eyes, concentrating for a bit. Then he smiled. "He's kissing her right now," he breathed as he looked back at her.

Alex smiled and coughed loudly, trying to get the attention of the two in the room. Daniel, grinning at that, concentrated on the two and gave them the suggestion to move into the medical bay.

"Pretend you're asleep," Daniel murmured to Alex, and both of them closed their eyes so that they looked closed, but were so that they could still see out of slits. A minute later, the two lovers came out of the other room, kissing the other intimately. John backed her into a wall where they continued to kiss. The two people in hospital beds tried hard not to laugh, and succeeded—but just barely. Even though it was funny to Alex, she still thought highly of the Colonel treating her cousin with respect and admiration, putting her on a pedestal and worshipping her with the love he felt towards her. Alex admired that in a man and wished that she, too, someday would be able to experience what her cousin was.

After a while, Alex sighed, and the doctor yelped. "She's awake," the Major heard Kate say and the two of them instantly stopped. "You'd better go," Kate breathed to John.

"I love you," John whispered into her ear as he hugged her close.

"I know," Kate replied quietly with a smile, and after a final kiss, he was gone. Kate appeared by Alex's bedside a moment later.

"Hey, sleepyhead," the doctor said softly with a huge smile. "How're ya feeling?"

Alex smiled sleepily. "Groggy, but otherwise good," she said just as quietly. "How's Daniel?"

The doctor looked over at him. "He'll be all right. You did a pretty good job of healing him. He just needed a bit of extra mending—he's fine now. Let him sleep a little longer. I think the both of you can leave here later today."

"Great!" Alex said and Kate left. After a moment, Daniel opened his eyes and looked over at the Major.

"Getting out of here later today sounds great," Daniel whispered.

"Yes it does," Alex said and the two smiled at each other, glad to be back home again.


End file.
